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RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 








By ROBERT E. SPEER 





Race and Race Relations. Cloth..... 


A Missionary Pioneer in the Far East. 
A Memorial of Divie Bethune McCartee 


The Gospel and the New World. Cloth 
The Stuff of Manhood. Cloth........ 


Fohn’s Gospel, The Greatest Book in the 
World oe 0Cloth ire eu ores ae niles 


Men Who Were Found Faithful. Cloth 


Some Great Leaders in the World Move- 
ment. The Cole Lectures for 1911. 
CG eB ts ARGS Me ACN tis ie ae Bie ee Pe 


Christianity and the Nations. The Duff 
ecturesifor J910M s Cloth wa eee a 


Missionary Principles and Practice. 
AGS Rea tn EN what .et imal nets Sapa 


Paul, the All-Round Man. Cloth.... 
A Young Man’s Questions. Cloth.... 


The Principles of Fesus. In Some Ap- 
plications to Present Life. Cloth.... 


Christ and Life. The Practice of the 
Christian-Life:)” Cloth vice) cme 


Studies of the Man Paul. Cloth..... 


Studies of “The Man Christ Fesus.” 
01 FT: Wa MPR Sry! tere! Ai bat 2, 


Lhe Deity of Christ’ Boards oll... 2) 


Frank Talks About Gambling and Bet- 
ie Ve PAnern,, Cate et nde Maen 


$3.50 


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Race and Race 


Relations 


A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF HUMAN 
CONTACTS 


Dyiy 
ROBERT E. SPEER 





New York CHICAGO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EpINBURGH 


Copyright, 1924, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


Printed in the United States of America 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Preface 


/ \ WO problems to which men have never yet found for 
themselves satisfactory answers are the problem of 
Church and State and the problem of race relations. This 

volume is an attempt to set forth the Christian conception and 

the Christian solution of the second of these problems. There is 
no pretence of approaching the problem without presuppositions. 

I do not believe that any one ever has approached or ever will ap- 

proach the race problem with an absolutely neutral and colourless 

mind. Certainly no Christian can do so. He seeks to view it and 
every other subject with what he conceives to be the mind of 

Christ. That is assuredly the approach attempted in this study. 

It is an effort to set forth the way of Christ in race relationships. 

This does not mean, however, that facts are evaded or bent in 
any way. Our only hope of ever solving any human problem is by 
finding and following the truth. And this is a sincere and earnest 
endeavour to find and state the truth about race and race relations. 
The best way to arrive at this truth is surely to go out among 
the races of the world and to associate with them in good will and 
friendship, to think of other races and to feel and act toward 
them as we should wish them to think of us and to feel and act 
toward us, and to seek to behave toward men of all races as one 
conceives Christ would approve. I have written as one who 
counts men of a score of different races as personal friends, as 
truly known as friends of his own race. 

The effort has been made to supply in this volume a source book 
of material on the race question as well as a consistent and con- 
structive statement of the Christian view. A friend of another 
race has criticised it on the ground that it should have been more 
partisan in some of its positions. I think there is no indefiniteness 
of conviction anywhere, but the writer’s purpose has been to state 
fairly any divergent views in order that the reader may have the 
material for his own conclusions. 


5 


6 PREFACE 


An abbreviated edition of this book was issued in the spring as 
a mission study text book by the Missionary Education Movement 
and the Council of Women for Home Missions. These agencies 
have cordially consented to the use of the material that was in 
the smaller book. That is less than half, however, of the present 
volume. The chapter by Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, of Bombay, 
did not appear at all in the smaller study book. 

The author desires to acknowledge gratefully his obligation to 
Professor William Adams Brown, Professor Edward G. Conklin, 
the Rev. Andrew Thakar Das, Professor D. J. Fleming, Dr. 
George E. Haynes, Mr. Bruno Lasker, Professor F. W. Williams, 
Mornay Williams, Esq., and other friends, some of whom have 
read the manuscript, or part of it, and all of whom have helped 
with contributions or criticisms. No one of them, however, is in 
any way responsible for the views set forth. © 

I desire to call attention to the books of two of my most valued 
friends, J. H. Oldham’s Christianity and the Race Problem, and 
Basil Matthews’ Clash of Colour. All three of these books were 
written quite independently but, at the same time, with the same 
purpose and under the same conditions. 

The race problem is capable of solution because so many men of 
different races in their own relationships have proved that it is. 
And Christ is the supreme proof. 


RBs 
New York. 


Contents 


CHAPTER I 
THE OrIGIN AND NATuRE OF RAcE 

| PAGE 
Race a social institution, an outgrowth of family........... 11 
Inheritance, environment:and education). 42". (eee. Sees, 14 
Reeresiare Tree TOT PrOOTess ye anys aren) 4! dinans APR ue We a 24 
DRCECHILCH ah ACO se ei into aansl inulhs (I Pay reir er aeug er 
Pree classiication ot racesar el sly aati Liee Mula auield Cin Oy 32 
PAICHIPIeS OER ClASS Ui GattON ey chi), Whe ae wo SemNet ei ae 34 
1. Intra-race more marked often than inter-race divisions. 34 
Zivbhe absence! Ob) Pitregraces skye uric aid em ken Midcwre arg 40 
3,| Unity of man clearer than his diversity, 2.0.6. 0.0). 43 
Origins and history of race consciousness................6. 45 

Among Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. 

CELA DER EL 
Tue Inga or Racy SupERIORITY 

Each race convinced of its own superiority.........0.....4. 55 
Pus aCeanoteracialmmenalityinnmnanenr enh, WIS. NONE 72 

In the case of the Jew and the Negro. 
errors dine: behind these! ideas I we Oe ee. Ee | 78 


1. The assumption of the validity of our own standards.. 78 
2. The assumption that backwardness and inferiority are 


SUMOTVINOUST Nels vikid ie pleat ar eran any etme Avr ee Rh, 81 
Oo) hetidea’of defective race character Wiis ee ah, 82 
4. The idea of the fixedness of race character........... 83 
5. The identification of race and civilisation............ 88 

6. The subordination of individuals to the theory of race 
ralajdaha eabtableyas (OM DTCu Ce BMAban Hen GeGea ICRA OMAR UUM SEURC CE Ua 90 
BOUniCOLEeCtIve (CONCIUISIONS t aiahiriy a eee ie TR vole Rumery taal 04 
TiaNortace doomed: to-interiority yw 0s, ROE A 95 


7 


8 CONTENTS 


PAGE 

2. A general equality of racial capacity, at least in the case 
OPN Gi vidtals yc Sie e Matote ek Us UA us hn 97 
3.) Service the only basis of racial prestige... .......... 101 

4. Mankind one in communicable intelligence and in as- 
SOCIALE *ACIIEVEITMICH Ee '-ys wi s+ alelieieke Mesa aueinin nea een 102 

Ch bar RTL 

THE Goop AND GAIN oF RAcE AND Rack DISTINCTION 
the: conception of ‘tace as mother...) 8 Se occa eee 105 
Uhe enrichment of humanity through race../ 0. 22.0 lean 107 


Racial self-expression, self-determination and just pride.... 109 
A spirit of inter-racial sympathy interprets history and life.. 124 


ihe economic inter-dependence oi raceswui (nie saa alee 127 
Racial diversity both a relief anda discipline! .. 02.72. 131 
The contribution of the various races to the common character 
and \wealth; of mankind 4. (2/0 ehh ok ii ee Oo eee Loe 
Christianity to be revealed by its application to all races and 
theirexperienceof its dulness 3) a ee shape en 148 
CHAPTER IV 
THE Evits AND ABUSES OF RACE 
Racial antipathy, its sources, its relation to fear............ 154 
The hatefulness and hurtfulness of race prejudice.......... 162 
India a picture of race division dominating society in caste.. 167 
mpeciic evil fruitages of race prejudice... A 4) eee a ee 170 
The exploitation and injury of weaker races............... 171 
wo comfortine considerations a.) yiohias.)52 ot ene ee 176 
But two disastrous and deadly impositions of the strong races 
Gncthe weak ie aca Rea ee Ee ec 178 
Opium and (Quon... Gc aue selene Rune eon ee aang 178 
IA VEE Yiieiinls bible Sul ate ACN COMA T ESR A peau 181 
Our treatment of Indians, Chinese, Italians and others...... 19] 
Two concrete illustrations of racial wrong. 
PLO Cas Ots ee a reach uC Sa Ue nA a ea 198 


CUD OWA TIEN tATS al ree MEU QIN aa MGs alt ty aaa 198 


CONTENTS 9 
PAGE 
Nae NLGlevanice, lynching yea enka ay aye fair) iy Coal Dao 200 
PACT ALTOS ATICE. 5 vis'e olalai terete ya SRV ie itn ar etl M AON Nias 008 208 

CHAP TCR, 

ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 

PPR ACE? ANG COLOTIT AMER iene UNG teh cert ata SU La amuain Canes 212 
PA ACE ATIC CLITTA LES hele a firs (al ehel WN TY eS Le as CURA DUE SU Zoe 
mee ace, atiOnalitve and janguae pe Cho eis. vii kine aieely) 47 224 
SMmACe AIT COMMIIDICATIONS aii lra Ulla uit dese vale Ubi, i 228 
PM tee ATCUGOCLALICCAIS | cre en aay ie het aatiate iets 2 230 
 ENSTMIEN ria Bk d heat) ee Dakatig Mon rtanen Uy arta IMO etn Bra SAE Ne 233 
Race and CHPIStiarit yas hits ite Meee eh Merce eieub Hg! a tala 200 
A henintiience OF aay ktiime W iy: OO ct bu a vie as 249 
heuntluerice of Christian Missions visi acu saeeusive st 252 

CHAPTER VI 

AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 

ieee De Ofigin and, puLpose Olisacewiwhany MeN Waiely salsa 260 
2. The unity and purposed fellowship of the races.......... 265 
ol USES Veg Tete FeVipe hata ha wes) ahead cue is oor MOP aE gt a Pe LRP BO AI 
POOUItION Ol the race problempinwwa oom le tl a ue wlll ela me 278 
Su Relation of race.to colour and nationality... 2...00 060402 281 
Oeoihe cause Of facial prejudices iii sale seu ne aveaiarciae 282 
Peete ONSCiOUSness! OF pace nin: INta ee en haa lai ae cat 283 
8. Race prejudice and race consciousness...........+0-004% 284 
9. Relation of the caste problem to the race problem........ 284 

CHAPTER VII 

THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 

fees Hey SOlition Oli CONMICE Hats Cty iy Mm ats et IQA 287 
emia sOlUMOT OL SCO TER ATION 6 204 SUD MRL Yat aia GaN Nal 291 
Bebe ccOlution .O LSD USATION ua We lnwuiae aeiy tluni na Una ste)e 299 
Pe  Hesolution Of euzenicsey (wan gees tiie summa igure taniy rt 303 


10 CONTENTS 


PAG 
5; SU helsoluition of amalgamation ('..\. a) ial aon eeanarene 306 
Considerations ‘favourable to itiai canna ye ee eel 306 
Mher*arouments) against! 1b1s 0) > sheets ieee eee 318 
Illustrated in the Eurasians and in Latin America, and 
in:the United States... (0.5 Soni Sen enna hye 
6.) Vhe (solution of Christian trusteeship. ia). |. eee 333 
4.; And ‘ofthe Christian, spirit andiidealsiy'. 0) ay ate aa 342 
CHARTER RAV ITT 
SoME SpeEciFIc Race PROBLEMS OF TODAY 
1., The relation of the white and Negro races...)..../0.... 348 
Progress toward a wise solution.............2... 348 
(1) ‘The importance of the right temper.) 322700 5, a, 358 
(2) Equality of economic:opportunity.). Js 0 ee 360 
(3) Political equality wii. (yin aia ea van ee 362 
(4) Educational opportunity penne. aa 365 
(5) Facts as to Negro population and its distribution.... 369 
(6) The question of ‘social equality... oi.) van ee 374 
2. Immigration and ‘the race problems. ./.)).2)..c ae 380 
3. The Mexicans and the Japanese in the United States.... 391 
4. The Indians and the Jews. Are the Jews a race?....... 399 
9. Our relation’ to) Latin America.) \) 415 
6.» The irace tangle mm Wurope vl eens ae i ee 420 
7. Immigration problems in Canada, Australia and Africa.. 420 
S.4 Japan's: race problems: 6)..../ gti) ie onal 421 
9 south Africa: and Tndiar (iy Wile ais ahy ee eae nee aa 423 
10. The race problem a test and an opportunity for Chris- 


dianity i Oe RC tae 427 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 


HE, questions of race and race relationships are the most 
insistent questions of the modern world, but there is no 
agreement as to what race is, as to how races originated, 

as to the character of racial differences, as to the meaning of race 
distinctions in human history, as to the solution of the problems 
of the relations of race to race, or as to the ultimate destiny of the 
present races of mankind. 

The thesis of this book is simply the Christian view of these 
questions. It holds that God made of one blood all races of men 
and that all races are but parts of one human race. Mankind is 
one great kindred of all men. That is what the word “ mankind ” 
means. In this view races are not conceived as biological fixtures 
but simply as enlarged family groups which are subject to mould- 
ing and transforming influences just as families are. Furthermore, 
the life of each race and of all races, that is of humanity, is not 
explicable on any mechanistic or materialistic basis. God is at 
work in human life and organic and personal energies which 

represent freedom and spiritual purpose are the determining 
- forces in unfolding human history. This is not an arbitrary pre- 
judgment. It is the reasonable conclusion from the actual facts 
of race and race relationships. 

The study of the race problem should begin with the kindly and 
humane recognition of a race as simply an enlarged family. This 
is the origin of race according to the Bible and in the view of all 
the Semitic peoples. 


“The antique conception of kinship is participation in one 
blood, which passes from parent to child and circulates in the 


11 


12 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


( 


veins of every member of the family. The unity of the family or 
clan is viewed as a physical unity, for the blood is the life,—an 
idea familiar to us from the Old Testament,—and it is the same 
blood and therefore the same life that is shared by every descend- 
ant of the common ancestor. The idea that the race has a life of 
its own, of which individual lives are only parts, is expressed even 
more clearly by picturing the race as a tree, of which the ancestor 
is the root or stem and the descendants the branches. This figure 
is used by all the Semites, and is very common both in the Old 
Testament and in the Arabian poets.” * 


And the Semitic view is the view which is universally true. 
Bagehot saw the patria potestas at the root of all race- and nation- 
building: “ First, the nation must possess the patria potestas in 
some form so marked as to give family life distinctness and pre- 
cision, and to make a home education and a home discipline prob- 
able and possible. While descent is traced only through the 
mother, and while the family is therefore a vague entity, no 
progress to a high polity is possible. Secondly, that polity would 
seem to have been created very gradually; by the aggregation of 
families into clans or gentes, and of clans into nations, and then 
again by the widening of nations so as to include circumjacent out- 
siders, as well as the first compact and sacred group.”* The racial 
sense of family unity has been the great cohesive force in China. 
There “the permanency of birth privileges (has been) allowed to 
the Royal Family not because it fulfills the functions of an autoc- 
racy, but because it embodies the conception of the nation as one 
family with a permanent relation to the will of Heaven, which so 
ordained the social nature of man.’’* This family tie, however, 
has never been exclusively the tie of blood relationship. “ The 
mere tie of blood-relationship was of no account among the 
Romans. . . . The tie of family was not the tie of blood; it 
was not the tie produced by marriage and by generation but a 
bond created by civil law—a bond of power.” * In other words 


*'W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, p. 40 f. 

*Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 184. 

* Quoted in Curtis’s The Commonwealth of Nations, p. 5. 

“Ortolan, History of Roman Law, quoted in Storrs’s, The Divine Origin 
of Christianity, p. 462. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 13 


the family, just like the race, is a social rather than a physiological 
institution.® 

Because each race is in reality only an enlarged family group it 
is right to conceive of its growth as governed, in the main, by the 
same processes which shape the character and growth of a family. 
Common experiences accentuate family consciousness and char- 
acter. Common memories and traditions which store up bits of 
common experience bind a family together and give it a temper 
and note of its own. The weight of such communities of interest 
and life in a race is immeasurably great. ‘‘ The cementing force 
of contests waged against natural dangers, threatening the entire 
community and binding them together for a common defence,” 
“all common needs which draw men out of barren isolation,” 
common hopes and ideals and undertakings, bind the expanded 
family into a race personality. “In the low lying districts on the 
coast of the North Sea, in Germany and Holland, the common 
danger from broken dykes and inundation by reason of furious 
storms and high tides has evoked a feeling of union which has had 
important results. There is a deep meaning in the myths which 
intimately connect the fight against these forces of Nature, these 
hundred-headed hydras, or sea-monsters crawling on to the land, 
with the extortion of the highest benefits for races in the founda- 
tion of states and the acquisition of culture. No race shows this 
more than the Chinese.” ® The Chinese illustrate also the truth 
that race cohesion is more powerful than race consciousness. In 
old days, China had little sense of racial unity. Citizens of differ- 
ent provinces looked on one another more aversely than different 
nations in the West. But the fact of racial unity is more powerful 
than the sense, and to-day China’s politicians are deliberately pre- 
paring to break China up into provincial nations with the confi- 
dence that ultimately these can be united under the pressure of 
Chinese race cohesion. 

No present race, of course, represents the purity of a single 


*LeRoy, The Religion of the Primitives, Chap. III. See Gulick’s argu- 
ment that the differences between the Eastern and the Western races are 
more sociological than biological. Evolution of the Japanese, pp. 424-428. 

° Ratzel, The History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 140. 


14 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


family and its descendants. The intermingling of centuries has 
been too confusing. But innumerable family relationships are 
evident within and between the races. The Jews are still the seed 
of Abraham, with obvious and tenacious family resemblance. 
And the Welsh are the same stock as the Basques and the Britons, 
before the Britons were mixed with the conquering races. 
Some of the Latin American peoples differ from one another in 
racial character by reason of clearly traceable differences of fam- 
ily genealogy on both sides of their mixed inheritance, such as the 
Quichua-Galician stock of Bolivia, the Araucanian-Andalusian 
stock of Chile, and the Guarany-Portuguese stock of Brazil. 

The truth about race character is well stated by Bruno Lasker: 

“Many anthropologists discuss race as though what kept it to- 
gether were purely a biological kinship. This is not so; in a sense 
the terms race and nation are interchangeable; in both the element 
of common memories, traditions, experiences, is present as well as 
common blood; only the relative weight of these two factors 
differs. In the family, properly speaking, the biological factor 
also is only one of the ties of union. For instance, in some of the 
greatest dynasties the proportion of the founder’s blood in those 
who after several centuries still adhere to his patronymic and pride 
themselves on their descent is almost non-existent, so small. The 
clan, the tribe, indeed any large family in a primitive community, 
is composed not only of blood relatives but also the relatives by 
marriage and their offspring. What makes it a clan, a tribe, or a 
family is exactly the spiritual bond.” 

In the family life there are prenatal and transmitted character- 
istics, but each family as we know it, and likewise each race, is the 
product not only of these inherited tendencies, but also of its en- 
vironment and education. Changed conditions can undo family 
and race inferiorities or dissimilarities. It is held by some that 
this statement is not true of inherited traits. But how did such 
racial traits come into existence? Surely they are not eternal. 
And if by some process they were produced, as they certainly 
were, the same or kindred processes can modify or transform 
them. We see this happening before our eyes in the case of fami- 
lies. In a generation two families may completely exchange their 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 15 


character and conditions as a result of outward circumstances or 
of the actions of individuals who rise above and reverse the fam- 
ily inheritance. With a far slower movement and by a far more 
intricate process races may change, and are not debarred from 
change by any deterministic racial prohibition. At the Universal 
Races Congress in London, in 1911, Dr. Myers, of the University 
of Cambridge, read a paper on “The Permanence of Racial 
Mental Differences,” in which he laid down the four following 
propositions : 

I. That the mental characters of the majority of the peasant 
class throughout Europe are essentially the same as those of 
primitive communities. 

II. That such differences between them as exist are the result 
of differences in environment and in individual variability. 

III. That the relation between the organism and its environ- 
ment (considered in its broadest sense) is the ultimate cause of 
variation, bodily and mental. 

IV. That this being admitted, the possibility of the progressive 
development of all primitive peoples must be conceded, if only 
the environment can be appropriately changed. 

And he closed his paper with the assertion “that if only the 
environment can be gradually changed, perhaps with sufficient 
slowness and certainly in the appropriate direction, both the 
mental and the physical characters of the lowest races may ulti- 
mately attain those of the highest, and vice versa. If we assume, 
as I think we must assume, that the white and negro races owe 
their respective characters ultimately to their environment, there 
is no a priori reason, it seems to me, for denying the possibility 
of a reversal of their differences, if the environment to which they 
are respectively exposed be gradually, in the course of many hun- 
dreds of thousands of years, reversed.” * 

We are introduced at once into the familiar issue over heredity 
and education. How do we know that part at least of what we call 
heredity in children may not be the influence of parental compan- 


*Spiller, Papers on Inter-racial Problems, Communicated to the First 
Universal Races Congress, London, 1911, pp. 73, 78. This volume will 
hereafter be cited as Universal Races Congress. See footnote on p. 36. 


16 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ionship, and in race the influence of social environment? It is 
enough to note that whatever the force of heredity in racial char- 
acter may be, it is not sovereign and unalterable. No race is 
doomed by its inheritance to incapacity for progress and change. 
Nor is any race secured by its inheritance against deterioration and 
ruin. ‘Trotsky, in his pamphlet on Terrorism and Communism, 
saw clearly that the quality of industry on which alone human 
society could rest, was not hereditary. “It is created,” he says, 
“by economic pressure and social education.” The origin and 
history of a race assuredly shape its character.8 And there are 
anthropologists who hold that race heredity is the determining 
power. “ Undoubtedly good environment and good education are 
important factors in the development of good citizens, but of even 
greater importance is good heredity,” says Professor Conklin. 
“Indeed it is not mere chance or accident that certain forms of 
civilisation have arisen among certain races and other forms 
among other races; on the contrary, inherited characteristics have 
to a large extent determined the type of civilisation which any 
race manifests. The qualities and achievements of nations are 
due less to governments than to grandmothers. . . . It is the 
duty of biology to teach the nation that heredity is more potent 
than environment or education.” ® As some one else has put it: 
“ Heredity does rule the destinies of men, with environment only 
such a factor as the chemical developer, capable of bringing out 
the image on the film, but incapable of creating it.” “To know 
the worst as well as the best in heredity; to foresee and to select 
the best—this is the most essential force in the future evolution 
of human society,” says Professor Osborn.4® Professor Mc- 
Dougall also argues that the chief influence in determining na- 
tional characteristics is racial inheritance. “The circumstance and 
environment may modify, or even check for a time, the effects of 
the inherited racial characteristics ; but these will always come out 


“Taine, History of English Literature, Vol. I, Introduction, Para- 
graph V. 


°The Yale Review, April, 1917, “Biology and National Welfare,” by 
Edward G. Conklin, p. 477. 


** Eugenics, Genetics and the Family, Vol. I, p. 4. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 17 


again and make themselves felt, and being thus the most per- 
sistent element in man’s mental make-up, they will appear as the 
dominant influence in the development of the character and point 
of view of the group.”?4 Mr. Lothrop Stoddard represents the 
extremest form of this view of the rigid determination of race in- 
heritance. He holds that racial momentum is more powerful than 
ideas or institutions.’2 He even believes that heredity is respon- 
sible for race decay; ‘The whole weight of scientific evidence 
shows that degeneracy is caused not by environment but by 
heredity ; that the degeneracy with which we have to deal is an 
old degeneracy due to taints which have been carried along in the 
germ plasm for generations.” 1* But how did these taints get in? 
Why may not good come in through the same door which admitted 
evil? And why may not heredity take up and carry forward good 
as well as bad? Some answer that the door that was once open 
is shut, or that at any rate the differences which have developed in 
the past are “relatively permanent and uninfluenced by external 
conditions.” 14 Others hold that inborn intelligence is static and 
that all differences “are attainments which are handed down.” ¥ 
Mr. Stoddard is speaking of the one race which he considers 
superior. If that race is bad with hereditary degeneracy, and if 
race inheritance is the absolutely dominating force, it is a dark 
outlook for all that race and for all races. And Mr. Stoddard 
goes over bodily to the most rigid racial determinism. He rejects 
John Stuart Mill’s statement: “ Of all vulgar modes of escaping 
from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences 
on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the di- 
versity of conduct and character to inherent natural differ- 
ences.” 4® He accepts Woods’s deliverance: “ Experimentally and 


1 The Hibbert Journal, Jan., 1923, “ The Influence of Race in History 
and Politics,” by G. C. Field, p. 288. 

2 Stoddard, The New World of Islam, p. 35. 

8 Stoddard, The Revolt Against Civilization, p. 248. 

“East, Mankind at the Crossroads, p. 131. 

18 See evidence in Youth and the Race, p. 307. The witness quoted sees 
no hope except in a control of the birth rate which will give the better 
classes with their better inheritance and their better opportunities a chance 
to outbreed the inferior classes. 

1@ Stoddard, The Revolt Against Civilization, p. 39. 


18 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


statistically, there is not a grain of proof that ordinary environ- 
ment can alter the salient mental and moral traits in any measur- 
able degree from what they were pre-determined to be through 
innate influence.’ 1” And he sets forth as his own view that “ it 
has been conclusively proved that intelligence is pre-determined 
by heredity ; that individuals come into the world differing vastly 
in mental capacities; that such differences remain virtually con- 
stant throughout life and cannot be lessened by environment or 
education ; that the present mental level of any individual can be 
definitely ascertained, and even a child’s future adult mental level 
confidently predicted. These are surely discoveries whose prac- 
tical importance can hardly be over-estimated. ‘They enable us to 
grade not merely individuals but whole nations and races accord- 
ing to their inborn capacities.” 18 Mr. Exline believes that the 
time is at hand when every citizen will be listed according to his 
ability and education, and will be educated according to his ability, 
and assigned his own inferior or superior place according to the 
tests which determine innate capacity; “a scientific classification 
of citizens and an accurate destination of each to his proper 
sphere, are indispensable alike to the freedom of the individual 
and the welfare of society as a whole.” 1% ‘This principle, good 
for individuals, is held by many to be good also for races. 

But this is a very subjective and passing view. Men who will 
look at all the facts certainly can accept no such pessimistic theory. 
They must recognise the power of education to modify or direct 
inheritance. “There is no heredity without environment,” says 
Dr. Davenport, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, “and 
few environmental effects which are not dependent also upon 
heredity.” 2° Professor East holds a stiff deterministic view but 
believes that man’s “actions are determined by the heredity he 
receives and the environment in which he finds himself.” 7? “In 
physical attributes,” he holds, “it is found that heredity fixes the 
potentiality of development within narrowly defined limits; en- 


ph LOido D. 4b, ) ed bad.) Pp. 56, 

7 New York Times, Book Review, January 7, 1923, on Exline’s Politics. 
” Eugenics, Genetics and the Family, Vol. I, p. 27. 

East, Mankind at the Crossroads, p. 3. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 19 


vironment determines matters definitely within these limits. If 
the parental gifts are right, the children will be tall; their exact 
height will depend upon their food, their work, their rest, and 
recreation. Similarly, mental attributes are inherited; whether 
these potential abilities are fully developed or remain partially 
dormant depends upon circumstances.” 72 And Prof. Conklin 
writes, 


_ “The quality of citizenship in this country, or in any other, 

depends not merely upon the stock or race but also upon the en- 
vironmental conditions. Environment and education do not 
change heredity, but they do modify development. If there is one 
thing in biology more certain than another, it is that good environ- 
ment cannot make good heredity out of that which is bad, but it 
can and does lead to the development in the individual of good 
potentialities, which are present in heredity, and to the suppression 
of bad ones. There are many alternative possibilities in each of 
us, and which ones will develop depends upon extrinsic conditions. 
A good citizen is one who has good social ideals and habits, and 
these are to a certain extent the result of his training and 
surroundings.” 78 


Mr. Field goes much further in reviewing Prof. McDougall’s 
The Group Mind. He admits that all influence of racial inherit- 
ance in explaining racial differences cannot be absolutely dis- 
proved, but he declares, “ All attempts to isolate it and trace its 
working break down. It is not a measurable factor in the devel- 
opment of the national character and institutions, and cannot be 
taken into account for any practical purposes.” ** “ Heredity,” 
says Prof. Ross, “is a cheap offhand explanation of the character- 
istics of a people at a given moment, but how is it that continually 
characteristics change when there has been no change in heredity? 
The observed traits of French, Germans and English today are by 
no means the same as the traits they manifested about the middle 
of the last century. Many of the faults of contemporary South 
American character can easily be duplicated from the history of 


4 Tbid., p. 31. 
*®The Yale Review, April, 1917, “ Biology and National Welfare,” p. 482. 
* The Hibbert Journal, Jan., 1923, p. 299. 


20 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


our own people. Today we succeed in making certain virtues 
fairly general among ourselves because gradually our society has 
equipped itself with the home training, the education, the religion, 
the ideals of life, the standards of conduct and the public opinion 
competent to produce these virtues. Societies that lack the right 
soul moulds will, of course, fail to obtain these virtues. But there 
is no reason why they may not borrow such moulds from the 
more experienced societies, just as we ourselves have sometimes 
done.” 25 

Let us state the views of these two schools of opinion a little 
more fully. On the one hand, many believers in heredity believe 
also in its absolutism. Dr. David Starr Jordan declares: 


“ Nurture can do wonders with man, but it cannot alter the 
nature he is to transmit to his descendants. . . . ‘The elements 
in the germ plasm are ancient and persistent, not affected by the 
vicissitudes of the individual life which bears them from gener- 
ation to generation. . . . More permanent than climate or train- 
ing or experience are the traits of heredity and in the long run it 
is always ‘ blood that tells” . . . The claim is sometimes made 
on an assumed basis of science that all races are biologically equal 
and that the difference of capacity which appears is due to op- 
portunity and education. But opportunity has come to no race 
as a gift. By effort it has created its own environment. Pow- 
erful strains make their own environment. The progress of 
each race has depended on its own inherent qualities. There has 
been no other leverage. Physical surroundings have played only 
a minor part.” 76 


Others who deem heredity the stronger force, nevertheless bal- 
ance their judgments with a large recognition of the place of edu- 
cation, especially of education by the social environment. “ That 
physical environment is not to be disregarded in any historic study 
of a civilisation is obvious enough,” says Goldenweiser, “ but no 
physical environment can in itself be responsible for producing a 
definite type of civilisation, nor can any environment, barring 
extremes, prevent a civilisation from developing. ‘Do not talk 


Ross, South of Panama, p. 249 f. 
*° Jordan, War and the Breed, pp. 13, 15, 16, 32 f. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 21 


to me about environmental determinants,’ the philosopher Hegel is 
reported to have said, ‘ Where the Greeks once lived, the Turks 
live now. That settles the matter.’” But Goldenweiser also 
writes, “ Racial factors cannot be held responsible for the variety 
of civilisational forms. For all we know or can convincingly as- 
sume, one generation receives nothing from its predecessor beyond 
the psycho-physical inheritance of the race plus the accumulated 
civilisational possessions acquired through education and other 
channels of cultural transfer.” *7 “On the whole,” says Thorn- 
dike, “it seems certain that prevalent opinions much exaggerate 
the influence of differences in circumstances and training in pro- 
ducing the intellectual and moral differences found in men of the 
same nation and epoch. Certain nations seem to have been made 
by certain environments when really the nation already made 
selected the environment.” But he adds, “ To the real work of 
man for man—the increase of achievement through the improve- 
ment of the environment—the influence of heredity offers no bar- 
rier,’ and he goes on, “ Morality is more susceptible than intellect 
to environmental influence.” 78 Park and Burgess sum up the 
matter as follows: 


“The question remains still to what extent so-called racial char- 
acteristics are actually racial, ¢. e., biological, and to what extent 
they are the effect of environmental conditions. The thesis of this 
paper, to state it again, is: (1) that fundamental temperamental 
qualities, which are the basis of interest and attention, act as 
selective agencies and as such determine what elements in the 
cultural environment each race will select; in what region it will 
seek and find its vocation in the larger social organisation; (2) 
that, on the other hand, technique, science, machinery, tools, habits, 
discipline, and all the intellectual and mechanical devices with 
which the civilised man lives and works remain relatively external 
to the inner core of significant attitudes and values which consti- 
tute what we may call the will of the group. This racial will is, to 
be sure, largely social, that is, modified by social experience, but it 
rests ultimately upon a complex of inherited characteristics, which 
are racial. 


7" Goldenweiser, Early Civilization, pp. 292, 299 f., 397 f. 
8 Educational Psychology, Vol. Ill, pp. 311, 313. 


22 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“The individual man is the bearer of a double inheritance. As 
a member of a race, he transmits by interbreeding a biological in- 
heritance. As a member of society, or a social group, on the other 
hand, he transmits by communication a social inheritance. ‘The 
particular complex of inheritable characters which characterises 
the individuals of a racial group constitutes the racial tempera- 
ment. The particular group of habits, accommodations, senti- 
ments, attitudes, and ideals transmitted by communication and 
education constitutes a social tradition. Between this temperament 
and this tradition there is, as has been generally recognised, a very 
intimate relationship. My assumption is that temperament is the 
basis of the interests; that as such it determines in the long run 
the general run of attention, and this, eventually, determines the 
selection in the case of an individual of his vocation, in the case of 
the racial group of its culture. That is to say, temperament de- 
termines what things the individual and the group will be inter- 
ested in; what elements of the general culture, to which they have 
access, they will assimilate; what, to state it pedagogically, they 
will learn. 

“It will be evident at once that where individuals of the same 
race and hence the same temperament are associated, the tempera- 
mental interests will tend to reinforce one another, and the atten- 
tion of members of the group will be more completely focused 
upon the specific objects and values that correspond to the racial 
temperament. In this way racial qualities become the basis for 
nationalities, a nationalistic group being merely a cultural and, 
eventually, a political society founded on the basis of racial 
inheritances.” 79 


This estimate allows much to the power of social environment 
in race character. Others are willing to go further. 


“The social inheritance of ideas and emotions to which the indi- 
vidual is submitted from infancy,” says Bury, “is more important 
than the tendencies physically transmitted from parent to child. 
The power of education and government in moulding the members 
of a society has recently been illustrated on a large scale in the 
psychological transformation of the German people in the life of 
a generation. . . . Some thinkers are coming round to the opin- 
ion that enormous differences in capacity which seem fundamental 


® Introduction to the Science of Sociology, by Robert E. Park and 
Ernest W. Burgess, Chapter II, ‘Human Nature,” Section 4, “ Tempera- 
ment, Tradition and Nationality,” pp. 137-138. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 23 


are a result of the differences in social inheritance, and that these 
are again due to a long sequence of historical circumstances ; and 
consequently, that there is no people in the world doomed by 
nature to perpetual inferiority or irrevocably disqualified by race 
from playing a useful part in the future of civilisation.” °° 


Even from the viewpoint of the mechanistic philosophy an argu- 
ment is made out for the supremacy of education and environment 
over heredity. In 4 Mechanistic View of War and Peace, Dr. 
Crile, one of our leading surgeons, contends: 


“The war reaction of a people is the final expression of its 
action patterns: their conduct is natural, inevitable. . . . War 
and peace can be comprehended only when they are considered as 
real effects of action patterns established by phylogeny and onto- 
geny. . . . Man should be considered as a mechanism, whose 
reactions under a given set of conditions are as inevitable as are 
the reactions of any other mechanism, such as a locomotive for 
example. . . . Subject races cannot be altered by force. 

Force creates action patterns in opposition to, not in consonance 
with, that force. A people may be brutalised into formal submis- 
sion, but brutal treatment results in creating in the brains of the 
children the strongest action patterns of opposition and of hatred. 
The conquering energy can never supplant the influence of the 
hating mother who plants action patterns in the brains of her 
children when the shades are drawn. . . . What limit can be 
set to the modification of the action patterns by education and 
training planned for the strengthening of the action patterns of 
peace? . . . The earliest predisposing cause of the present war 
of nations was the establishment of an action pattern of war in 
the first child who as a man is now concerned therein. This event 
was a microscopic declaration of war. Multiples of like action 
patterns made inevitable the final declaration of war between the 
nations. ‘Therefore, like Prometheus, man is chained to the rock 
of fate, unless a new philosophy is introduced; unless the order of 
life of the majority of the inhabitants of the earth be so modified 
that in the next generation peace patterns shall be increased and 
war patterns lessened. . . . Man’s action patterns reflect as in 
a mirror his environment. . . . The young of all animals are 
plastic. ‘The child of man is most plastic. . . . Ifa child re- 
mains in a Christian portion of the web of life, Christian action 


° Bury, The Idea of Progress, p. 166. 


24 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


patterns are formed; if in a pagan web he becomes pagan [note: 
not ‘is,’ but ‘becomes’]. . . . The action patterns thus formed 
in the plastic brain constitute the personality of the individual and 
make the reactions of the human mechanism as inevitable and as 
true as are the reactions of a man-made machine. . . . The en- 
vironment therefore is the mould which predetermines the man. 
; Ai: he only way in which the action patterns of a people can 
be altered is by changing the mould—altering the environment. 
In America, the plastic newborn of many races and nation- 
alities are gathered and are so melted and moulded in our public 
schools that the second generations of Furopean origin can 
scarcely be distinguished from those of Mayflower descent.” 


On the next page of his book, Dr. Crile speaks of man’s com- 
prehending “the dominating influence of his progenitors” and 
appreciating “the infinite possibilities of his training.” * 

Still more on the basis of spiritualistic philosophies, men believe 
in the freedom of race from the absolutism of heredity. “It is no 
longer doubtful,” says Dr. W. H. Thompson in Brain and Person- 
ality, “that every race of man can be educated to know anything, 
from reading and writing to mathematics, philosophy and political 
economy. In other words, man is always and everywhere, man, 
and infinitely distant in mind from every ape.” ‘ The criminal,” 
says Sir Basil Thomson, “is not born, but made.” Dr. Wiley 
sees the possibility of extirpating the liquor-thirst in thirty years,*° 
and Kidd believes that the entire world could be remade by the 
mothers of any single generation.** A new school of sociologists 
is growing up which conceives human nature itself to be not a 
biological mechanism but a product of social relationships. 
“Human nature,” says Professor Hartshorne, “is what human 
nature does—under certain conditions; namely, when it is in 
socially functioning relations.” Professor Dunlap declares that 
human nature cannot be explained in terms of instincts or original 
tendencies, and that in the matter of ideals inherited capacity plays 
only a minor part. Professor Richardson holds that “ instinctive 


A Mechanistic View of War and Peace, pp. 66, 58, 75, 77, 97, 100 £. 
* New York Times, Dec. 23, 1922. 

% New York Timcs, Jan. 26, 1923. 

* Kidd, The Science of Power. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 25 


impulses never come to utterance, amorphously, as pure instinct. 
It is always as modified through conscious reactions to factors 
found in environment.” Some even hold that education can 
change the center of personality and that it is justifiable for man 
to “ envisage a new race.” * 

So much, at least, is clear: There is no fiat of fixed racial des- 
tiny. Races, like families and individuals, are free by right 
choices and under the influence of right forces to move on into 
a new and different character. As Finot says, 


“All the condemnations of peoples and races in virtue of an 
innate superiority or inferiority have in reality failed. Life has 
taught us to be more circumspect in our judgments. A savant 
who presumes to pronounce a verdict of eternal barbarism against 
any people deserves to be laughed at. 

“This possibility of developing the faculty of thinking implies 
at the same time the faculty of benefiting by its age-long con- 
quests. It is thus that the peoples who approach tardily towards 
civilisation succeed in easily regaining the time lost throughout 
their period of barbarism. ‘The complex world of culture opens 
out at once before a people who begin to draw from its source. 
Together with European thought they appropriate its social and 
political advantages, its discoveries and inventions. They enter 
thus abruptly within the space of a generation into the great civil- 
ised family, and benefit by its institutions which were formed 
after centuries of persevering toil. 

“The Negroes, for example, whom it is desired to class among 
the most inferior races, astonish, as we shall see later on, all those 
who study their history without prejudice by their progress, which 
is altogether amazing. Fifty years ago those of the Southern 
States did not possess a hundred hectares of land. Today the 
number of negro landed proprietors exceeds 130,000 and repre- 
sents a value of 1,500,000,000 francs, whereas they all are worth 
more than four thousand millions. The balance sheet of the last 
fifty years of this race’s existence, which race was believed to be 
predestined to ‘eternal servitude’ under men of ivory or brown 
colour, is a fact which should make the experts of human inequal- 
ity pause and ponder.” ° 


The truth about racial character and the possibility of racial 


® See papers in Religious Education, Feb., 1923. 
* Finot, Race Prejudice, p. 174 f. 


26 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


progress is wisely put in a statement adapted from Marvin’s , 
Progress and History: 


“We are not to conclude that physical heredity is of no im- 
portance to the social order ; it must be obvious that the better the 
qualities of the individuals constituting a race, the more easily 
they will advance those traditions to a still higher point of excel- 
lence, and the more stoutly they would resist deterioration. The 
qualities upon which the social fabric calls must be there, and the 
more readily they are forthcoming, the more easily the social 
machine will work. Hence social progress necessarily implies a 
certain level of racial development, and its advance may always 
be checked by the limitations of the racial type. Nevertheless, if 
we look at human history as a whole, we are impressed with the 
stability of the great fundamental characteristics of human nature 
and the relatively sweeping character and often rapid development 
of social change. 

“In view of this contrast we must hesitate to attribute any sub- 
stantial share in human development to biological factors, and our 
hesitation is increased when we consider the factors on which 
social change depends. It is in the department of knowledge and 
industry that advance is more rapid and certain, and the reason is 
perfectly clear. It is that on this side each generation can build 
on the work of its predecessors. A man of very moderate mathe- 
matical capacity today can solve problems which puzzled Newton, 
because he has available the work of Newton and of many another 
since Newton’s time. In the department of ethics the case is 
different. ach man’s character has to be formed anew, and 
though teaching goes for much, it is not everything. The indi- 
vidual in the end works out his own salvation. Where there is 
true ethical progress it is in the advance of ethical conceptions 
and principles which can be handed on; of laws and institutions 
which can be built up, maintained, and improved. ‘That is to say, 
there is progress just where the factor of social tradition comes 
into play and just so far as its influence extends. If the tradition 
is broken, the race begins again where it stood before the tradi- 
tion was formed. We may infer that, while the race has been 
relatively stagnant, society has rapidly developed, and we must 
conclude that, whether for good or for evil, social changes are 
mainly determined, not by alterations of racial type, but by modi- 
fications of tradition due to the interactions of social causes. 
Progress is not racial but social.” °7 


*” Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, p. 972. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 27 


The door of life and hope is open to all races. 

But what is race? What are its fundamental criteria? The 
extreme biological view conceives that there is a fixed racial germ 
plasm which by heredity is absolutely determinative of racial 
character and of the character of individual members of each 
race.28 But the races themselves are not fixtures. As Professor 
Dixon says: “A race is not a permanent entity, something static ; 
on the contrary it is dynamic and is slowly developing and chang- 
ing as the result of fresh increments of one or another of its origi- 
nal constituents or of some new one.” And the difference in the 
germ plasm of different races cannot be found by the microscope 
nor can it be discovered by any chemical analysis. It is a bio- 
logical hypothesis.°? A more moderate view finds the racial dif- 


8 Fugenics, Genetics and the Family, Vol. I, pp. 65-75. Paper by C, E. 
McClung, “ Evolution of the Chromosome Complex.” 

*® A microscopic examination of the blood of Negro and white shows the 
same chromosomal composition, both in general form and in number of 
chromosomes. (Eugenics, Genetics and the Family, Vol. I, Plate I.) And 
so far as the surgeons now know, the blood of any race can be transfused 
into the veins of any other race. The qualities which make blood non- 
transferable are not racial but individual. The biologists hold, however, 
that even though the differences in racial germ plasm cannot be found by 
any tests, they are nevertheless there and are demonstrated by their effects. 
The sociologists reply that the effects may be due to other causes. It may 
be well to cite the views of the biologists. Prof. Conklin, of Princeton, 
writes: 

“Tt is, of course, true that one cannot detect with the microscope any 
visible difference in the germ plasm of one human race as compared with 
that of another, but this would also be true if we were to compare the 
germ plasms of many different genera and even phyla of animals. The 
fact is that differences of an invisible nature may readily be detected by the 
results of development when they cannot be directly seen with the micro- 
scope. For example, there is no question that there is some difference in 
the germ plasm of a Negro and a white man, but this difference cannot be 
directly observed because our microscopes are too imperfect to see all the 
differences that actually exist in germ plasms. Of course, this method of 
detecting invisible differences is used in physics and chemistry, and in many 
other sciences. 

“So far as I know there is no difference that is recognisable with the 

microscope between the blood of a Chinese and that of a white man. 
But the point of real importance is that differences in germ plasm can: be 
demonstrated to exist even though they cannot be seen directly, just as 
molecules and atoms can be demonstrated to exist though no one has ever 
seen a molecule or atom.” (Letter E. G. Conklin, Feb. 25, 1924.) 

Prof. Parshley, of Smith College, writes: 

“ Biologists are almost unanimously agreed that new hereditary types of 
animals and plants can appear only when the chromosomes of the germ 


28 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ferentia in various physiological measurements as to the size and 
shape of the head. Professor Dixon’s definition and classification 
of races rest on three of these measurements, “the cranial or 
cephalic index, the altitudinal or length-height index and the nasal 
index.” The old theories dealt crudely with long and narrow- 
headed races and with broad and flat-headed, but Prof. Dixon 
finds all kinds of heads in the same race, although certain of the 
twenty-seven possible combinations of his three indices predomi- 
nate in the various races and sub-races. But Finot makes merry 
with these indices and with all brain measurements: “ The truth 


cells are modified; moreover, such new types do appear, both in nature 
(e. g., albino, deer, trout, etc.) and under domestication. Such new types 
are called ‘mutations’ for the very purpose of distinguishing them from 
‘fluctuating variations’ (4. e., acquired characteristics) such as large size, 
due to good food; manual dexterity, due to practice; and any other peculi- 
arity due to individual experience. It is, therefore, nonsensical for Kam- 
merer to identify mutations and acquired characteristics. And it is even 
more nonsensical for him to pose as the sole refuge and support of Darwin, 
for the theory of natural selection stands as a fact of experience and of 
logic without regard to the mode of origin of mutations. In fact, if heredi- 
tary qualities could be improved in the “mass—if the lower orders could be 
moved upward in a body under the influence, say, of education or prohi- 
bition (as Dr. Kammerer and the New Republic seem to think possible)— 
then the import of natural selection as a principle of evolution would, in- 
deed, diminish towards the vanishing point and Darwin would soon be 
justly forgotten. 

“One of the central problems of biology is, then, to discover the causes 
of these mutations. That is: what influences can so affect the chromosomes 
of the germ cells that the generation arising therefrom will be inherently 
different from its parents? This question is now under active investigation 
in a hundred biological laboratories; and the possible effects of the envi- 
ronment are being by no means neglected. It is thus premature to an- 
nounce that the process works precisely thus and so; but modern biology 
is practically unanimous in certain beliefs: (1) hereditary qualities are 
extremely stable; (2) permanent true-breeding new races have never yet 
been produced by experimentally imposed environmental factors; (3) true 
mutations arise in single individuals only, even though thousands may be 
exposed to identical conditions; (4) the immediate causes of mutations— 
i. e., changes in hereditary factors (genes)—are unknown, but they are not 
considered ‘inner,’ ‘supernatural,’ or ‘metaphysical’; on the contrary, they 
must be, in the last analysis, environmental; (5) human experience and 
experiment alike indicate that general circumstantial influences, such as 
education, training, starving, freezing, etc., do not ordinarily induce cor- 
responding mutations, however much the individual may be modified by 
their action. This is a principle of practical value for human sociology no 
less than for commercial animal breeding; and it will not be disturbed, it 
is safe to say, by the ultimate discovery of just how chemical changes occur 
in the genes.” (New York Evening Post, Literary Review, March 8, 
1924, p. 586.) 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 29 


is that the skull and the brain furnish no arguments in favour of 
organic inequality.” 4° 

Other teachers find the root of race difference in the glands and — 
look for the principle of racial distinction and classification here. 
Professor Conklin, who believes racial heredity to be stronger than 
racial education, still thinks “that many characteristics which 
have hitherto been regarded as hereditary or racial may be due to 
environmental causes; it is probable, for example, that stature, 
long-headedness (dolichocephaly) or round-headedness (brachy- 
cephaly), etc., may sometimes be caused by higher or lower activ- 
ity of the thyroid gland and that this may be influenced by food, 
particularly by the iodine intake.” 44 And now still other theories 
appear which go beyond the thyroid gland and the iodine intake to 
different activities of the pituitary body in different races. 


“We are justified,’ Sir Arthur Keith says, “in regarding the 
pituitary gland as one of the principal pinions in the machinery 
which regulates the growth of the human body and is directly 
concerned in determining stature, cast of features, texture of skin 
and character of hair—all of them marks of race. When we com- 
pare the chief racial types of humanity—Negro, the Mongol, and 
the Caucasian or European—we can recognise in the last-named 
a greater predominance of the pituitary than in the other two. 
The sharp and pronounced nasalisation of the face, the tendency 
to strong eyebrow ridges, the prominent chin, the tendency to bulk 
of body and height of stature in the majority of Europeans are 
best explained, so far as the present state of our knowledge goes, 
in terms of pituitary function.” * 


And what is the pituitary body? The Century Dictionary de- 
fines it as “a small ovoid pale-reddish body, occupying the silla 
turcica and attached to the under surface of the cerebellum by the 
infundibulum.” This is a far more wonderful world than we 
have ever dreamed, if this is the explanation of the problem of 
race and of the human history which has grown out of it. 


“Finot, Race Prejudice, Chap. VI, “The Divisions of Humanity from 
a Craniological Point of View.” 

* Conklin, The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 35. 

“Thomson, The Outline of Science, Vol. IV, p. 1097. 


30 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


These biological views regarding race-signs and race-heredity 
become of grave social significance when they are made the ground 
of theories of race determinism. It is not, however, of germ 
plasm, or cranial measure or thyroid or pituitary glands that men 
are thinking when they talk of race and race characteristics. It is 
quite other elements that they have in mind. As Prof. Dixon says 
in the opening paragraph of his great volume: 


“We refer to the Negro or the Mongolian ‘race’ and in so 
doing have in mind primarily certain general physical character- 
istics of colour, hair and features, while linguistic, cultural, his- 
torical, and political factors play but a comparatively subordinate 
part in our conception. We also speak, however, of the Latin, the 
Anglo-Saxon, or the Celtic ‘race,’ but here, although physical 
characteristics are in some measure concerned, it is more on lan-- 
guage and culture, and in considerable degree on historical and 
political unity that our mental picture rests. From the standpoint 
of the anthropologist this latter use of the word ‘race’ is inad- 
missible, for to him a race is a biological group, based on com- 
munity of physical characters. For groups characterised on the 
one hand by linguistic, or on the other hand by cultural, historical 
or political unity, he employs the terms ‘ stock’ and ‘ nation.’ ” ** 


For us, however, in this study, the word race must bear this 
wider, human significance and it must mean the same thing in 
the case of Negro and Caucasian, of the Yellow and Brown 
peoples. It is not a matter of colour either of skin or of blood. 
| Predominantly it is a matter of group culture and inheritance. 

There are different skin colours and we shall consider their sig- 
nificance later, and there are writers who speak of “ white blood ” 
and “black blood” and who believe presumably in brown and 
yellow blood, which shows how easy it is for men to fall under 
obsessions in their views of race. In strict scientific sense there is 
no sure racial classification, nor any sure theory of racial origin. 
There is only the possibility of a broad division of human groups 
marked with more or less vague general characteristics of colour 
and habitat and culture, of inheritance and social standards and 
ideals. We speak of the white, brown, yellow, black and red 


“The Racial History of Man, p. 3. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 31 


races—Aryan or Caucasian, Hindu and Malay and Arab, Mon- 
golian, Negro, Indian, but the terms are disputable or confused, 
and the groups overlap and are both deeply divided and com- 
mingled within. ‘ All races are more or less mixed. There are 
no doubt four main groups, but each is a miscellany, and there 
are little groups that will not go into any of the four main di- 
visions. Subject to these reservations, when it is clearly under- 
stood that when we speak of the main divisions we mean not sim- 
ple and pure races, but groups of races, then they have a certain 
convenience in discussion.” 44 There are some anthropologists 
who in the face of the confusion deny the validity of the concept 
of race altogether. “ Race,’ says Professor Ross, “is the cheap 
explanation tyros offer for any collective trait that they are too 
stupid or lazy to trace to its origin in the physical environment, 
the social environment or historical conditions.” 4° And Finot 
declares : 


“The history of civilisation is only a continual come and go of 
peoples and races! All, without distinction of their biological 
characteristics, are summoned to this great struggle for life 
wherein we fight for human progress and happiness. All the 
ethnical elements can take part in it, all can contend for places of 
honour in it. Such is the general import of our biological and 
psychological equality, which remains intact underneath all our 
superficial divisions. 

“In the present state of science it has become impossible for us 
to distinguish the ethnical origins of peoples. ‘The constituent 
elements are so much intermingled that the most ardent partisans 
of inequality must admit the relationship of all the races. The 
purity of blood which we create at will, and which we find in the 
animal world, becomes impossible in the human milieu. The 
Negroes are related to the Whites, who are linked to the Yellows, 
as these last have common links both with Negroes and Whites. 
On the road which separates them we only meet with links which 
unite them. 

“ Nevertheless, we foresee an objection which certain minds 
who are satisfied with simple arguments are sure to make. ‘ Does 
the Negro ever cease in spite of everything to be a black, or the 


“Wells, The Outline of History, Vol. I, p. 141. 
© Social Psychology, p. 3 


32 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Chinese a yellow? Would the author have us understand that 
between a Redskin, a Papuan, or a White there are no differ- 
ences?’ Far from wishing to hide them, we have done nothing 
but look for them. They exist, and we have laid stress on a con- 
siderable number of them, but they are only the passing products 
of the milieu. Having come about as the result of external cir- 
cumstances, they disappear in the same way. As it is impossible 
to shut up human souls in dogmatic and eternal formulas, it is 
equally impossible to enclose human beings in immutable racial 
moulds. But more. As we have had the opportunity of proving, 
the word race cannot be used to determine the specific character 
of the floating distinctions between members of the human unity. 

“In one word, the term race is only a product of our mental 
activities, the work of our intellect, and outside all reality. 
Science had need of races as hypothetical limits, and these ‘ prod- 
ucts of art,’ to use Lamarck’s expression, have become concrete 
realities for the vulgar. Races as irreducible categories only exist 
as fictions in our brains.” #6 


But it is not possible in this bold way to do away with the real- 
ity of race. We may not be able to formulate a scientific definition 
of race or to establish a clear classification of fixed races, but the 
_ broad fact of race is one of the surest realities in the world. 
' The commonly accepted grouping of mankind recognises three 
rough general divisions. ‘Thomson states the prevalent view as 
follows: 


“More for convenience than with conviction, ethnologists are 
accustomed to recognise three primary groups of human races— 
the black, the yellow and the white. Each group has numerous 
subdivisions or races, each race may have its sub-race, each sub- 
race its breeds, each breed its stocks. 

“1. The group of Black or Negroid races is typically charac- 
terised by darkly pigmented skin, frizzly hair, a broad flat nose, 
thick lips, prominent eyes, large teeth, a narrow hip-girdle, and 
long heads (dolichocephaly). But there is great variety within 
the group, which includes African negroes, South African bush- 
men, various Pygmy races, together with such divergent types as 
the Melanesians and the Australian blackfellows (who have not 
frizzly hair). 

“2. The group of Yellow or Mongolian races is typically char- 


“Finot, Race Prejudice, p. 316. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 33 


acterised by yellowish skin, black straight hair, broad face with 
prominent cheek bones, small nose, sunken narrow eyes, moder- 
ately sized teeth, and diverse types of skull. Here come in 
Chinese, Japanese, Tibetans, Siamese, Burmese, Malays, Brown 
Polynesians, Maoris, Esquimaux, and Red Indians; and most di- 
vergent of all, the Lapps and Finns, the Magyars and Turks. 

“3. The group of White or Caucasian races is typically char- 
acterised by soft and straight hair, well-developed beard, retreat- 
ing cheek bones, narrow and prominent nose, small teeth, and 
broad hip-girdle. But the group includes along with the fair- 
haired and white-skinned peoples of Northern Europe, the dark- 
haired and often dark-complexioned southerners. Thus in Europe 
we may distinguish the tall and blond Nordics, the stocky dark 
Alpines, and the small dark Mediterraneans, while in Asia there 
are the Indo-Aryan and other types. It hardly requires to be 
said, for the heterogeneity of our enumeration is so evident, that 
these three primary groups—Negroid, Mongolian and Caucasian 
—do not mean very much scientifically ; yet every one will admit 
that a Persian is nearer to a Britisher than a Hottentot is, and we 
think we understand what an Arab is after, while a Chinaman 
remains a sphinx.” ** 


Professor Thomson rejects as no longer tenable the former idea 
of an ancient trifurcation of the human species into these three, 
black, yellow and white, or any other primary races. His classi- 
fication assigns the American Indians to the Yellow or Mongolian 
race, but Professor Dixon on the strength of head measurements 
maintains that our Indians represent a strong Negroid strain 
which came over from Asia by the Behring Straits. Dixon’s 
theory “ would regard the American Indian as not a single race, 
but as a complex of four main racial elements coming into the 
continent at different periods.” 48 If they came across Asia, as 
they must have done, it is inconceivable that they did not leave 
their trace on the Asiatic races. And as Dixon maintains also, 
as will appear, that there is a strong Negroid element in the Euro- 
pean races, it would seem impossible for any people to escape a 
black kinship. These various racial boundaries have been crossed 


“Thomson, The Outline of Science, Vol. IV, p. 1095; Encyclopedia Brit- 
annica, art. “ Ethnology.” 
“New York Times, Dec. 30, 1922. 


34 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and recrossed so that, as we shall see, there are no pure races. 
All are mixed and transfused. “If we regard mankind as a body 
ever in movement,” says Ratzel, “we cannot, as once was usual, 
look upon it as a union of species, sub-species, groups, races, 
tribes, rigidly separate from each other. As soon as ever a por- 
tion of mankind had learnt to plow the dissociating ocean, the 
mark was set for ever progressing fusion.” #9 Even a single race, 
as we regard it, is a composite. The great African race, the 
Bantu, is typical. “ While the modern Bantu have much in com- 
mon, they are not homogeneous either in culture or in physical 
appearance. ‘This fact must be accounted for by the varying 
degrees of their mixture with the aboriginals and by the influence 
of diverse climatic conditions.” °° Of all these races, Professor 
Giddings thinks that the white group represents, more closely than 
any other, the primitive, undifferentiated type of humanity.°** 

How clearly unsatisfactory is our attempt to say what races 
there really are! We find that there are deeper divisions inside 
some of the accepted races of men than there are between these 
races and other races; secondly, that there are no pure and un- 
mixed races unless among some of these ranked lowest; and 
thirdly, that the unity of man is unmistakably more real and con- 
clusive than his racial diversification. 

1. There are divisions intra-race more marked than the inter- 
race divisions. (a) In the classifications given above, the Jew 
belongs to the Caucasian or white group. The inaccuracy of the 
colour test is seen in the fact that there are Black Jews. If colour 
is the ‘criterion of race, then the Jews are not a race. Perhaps, 
indeed, they are not. Later we shall consider this. Now it is 
enough to state that the Jews are counted a race within the Cau- 
casic group, and yet the practical racial division, socially even if 
not biologically, between the Jews and the rest of this group 1s 
greater than the division between American and Chinese students 
in American universities. And Sir Charles Eliot holds that the 
Chinese as a race are more like Europeans than races much nearer 


” The History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 10. 
° Smith, The Religion of Lower Races, p. 6. 
5 New York Times, April 17, 1923. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 35 


and more kindred to the European peoples.5* (b) The English 
and the Scotch-Irish are of one intimate race starting within the 
Caucasic group, but they have clashed with one another more than 
the Scotch-Irish have ever clashed with the French, a more distant 
stock, or with the Dutch. Indeed so deep was the antagonism 
between Scotch-Irish and English at the time of the Revolutionary 
War that the issue of the war really turned upon it. “The more 
one studies the details of the struggle, the more remarkable ap- 
pears the successful issue. It seemed little less than a miracle to 
Washington himself, when he calmly reviewed it in later days. 
The affair remains a mystery until we consider the effect of the 
Ulster migration ” and of the deep antipathy of the Scotch-Irish 
immigrants due to the wrongs they had suffered from English 
landlords and English commercial policy.5? (c) Again and again 
in human history economic forces or other general influences have 
proved stronger than race cohesion. We may not agree with the 
rather cynical judgment of a recent French writer in Le Temps: 


“Above all, we must never forget that peoples are not linked 
together by racial ties, by resemblances, nor even by blood rela- 
tionship. All this is material for couplets about sister nations and 
academic speechifying at the Sorbonne or at the Capitol. Racial 
resemblances mainly influence men of the same culture—the 
chosen few. No, what brings peoples together and unites them is 
a solid network of common interests, common and tangible profits. 
These are the realities that bring themselves home to thousands of 
men—the workers, who are the strength and the population of a 
country.” 54 


We do not yield to this extreme economic view. But we must 
recognise the truth in it, namely, that many influences com- | 
mon to humanity are stronger than the solidarity of race. “Iam 
afraid I am not one of those happy, optimistic persons who con- 
fidently declare that war between Anglo-Saxons is impossible,” 
said the Senior Counsel for Canada at the International Fisheries 


2 Letters from the Far East, p. 142. 

Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America, p. 526. 

“Le Temps, April 19, 1923. Article by Joseph Galtier, “Some Fascist 
Doctrines,” quoted in The Living Age, May 26, 1923, p. 442. 


36 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


arbitration, at the Hague in 1916. ‘“‘On two occasions, Canada 
has supplied the battle ground for English and American soldiers. 
One hundred years have passed and I doubt if men have grown 
wiser.” °° Racial unity is by no means one of the strongest human 
forces. The most dreadful war in history, before the twentieth 
century, was fought between brothers of one race, and the occasion 
of the conflict was another race. Difference over the Negro was 
more powerful than White agreement.°® And in the World War 
races were found allied with stranger races, warring against races 
to which they were kindred by blood. Dr. Patton, in his book 
World Facts and America’s Responsibility, presents some of 
these instances of the transcendence of other forces over race. A 
chief of one of the Maori tribes, called upon to advise his young 
men as they were about to embark for the war, addressed them in 
these words: 


“For the first time in the history of the Maori race, all tribes 
are united to fight together for the Empire. We have learned 
wisdom, and regret our former violence; and we are now at last 
united to fight for our white brethren. You soldiers, don’t forget 
that we all originate from one common stock. We worship one 
God. Be truthful, be honourable. You carry the honour of the 
Maori race in your hands. Be brave; and remember the flag you 
will have flying over your tents. With reference to your religious 
beliefs, don’t forget that you aim for one Heaven. Fear God, 
read and study your Bibles, and may the British reign over us 
forever.” 


Sarojini Naidu, the Hindu poetess, addressed to England a 
poem entitled: ‘The Gift of India,” in which she sings of the 
loyalty of her country’s soldiers in the great war. 


“Gathered like pearls in their alien graves 
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves; 


® New York Times, Feb. 19, ’21. 

% Report of Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 43. The full title of this 
volume, to be often quoted, is Papers on Inter-racial Problems, commumnt- 
cated to the First Universal Races Congress, held at the University of 
London, July 26-29, 1911. Edited by G. Spiller. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 37 


Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands, 

They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands; 
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance 
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.” 


Bishop Warne, of Lucknow, tells how his daughter at the out- 
break of the war, hung a large map of the world in her study, on 
which she was accustomed to trace the progress of the armies on 
the various fronts, and how prominent natives from near and far 
would come in and ask to have her explain the latest news and 
indicate on the map where the Indian troops were engaged. One 
day an aged man from a city far in the North, arrived and en-_ 
quired how things were going for the Allies. When all was ex- 
plained, he expressed his gratitude, and then, on the supposition 
that she was English, he delivered himself on this wise: “I have 
come on a long journey to learn these things, and I want you to 
know that my heart is full, When you go back to England and 
see your king I want you to deliver this message from me. Say, 
“My grandfather lived under the British raj; my father lived 
under the British raj; I have lived all my life under the British 
raj, and my children are living under the British raj today. In 
all these years we have had justice, protection, peace and plenty. 
Tell the King that we Indians are grateful for his rule over our 
land, and that we will stand by him to the very end.’”’ 

When Djemal Pasha marched against Egypt in the ill-fated 
expedition of the spring of 1915, among the opposing troops lined 
up along the Suez Canal was a Moslem battalion from India. 
When the Turkish officers learned this fact, chuckling with glee, 
they passed the word around among the soldiers and reckoned 
upon an easy victory. They said “ You will find the canal de- 
fended by Moslems. When ordered to charge you have but to 
shout, “ We are your brothers. We are fellow Moslems,’ and they 
will throw down their arms and welcome you as brothers, and we 
shall march into Egypt as on a holiday excursion.” The Turkish 
troops believed this word, and when the first charge was made and 
they shouted as they had been instructed, they were met by a blaze 
of rapid-fire guns and were mown down in heaps upon the desert 


38 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


sands.°’ Race kinship is not the sovereign law. (d) Our broad 
slashing race divisions according to colour, which dominate the 
current alarmist propaganda, classify all the Indian people to- 
gether as brown and treat them as a single element. But there is 
no reality in such a fiction. The people of India are not all brown 
and they are less tightly bound together than many of them are 
bound to us. Here is the picture of India which Lord Dufferin 
drew thirty-five years ago: 


“This population is composed of a large number of distinct 
nationalities, professing various religions, practising diverse rites, 
speaking different languages, while many of them are still further 
separated from one another by discordant prejudices, by conflict- 
ing source of usages, and even antagonistic material interests. But 
perhaps the most patent characteristic of our Indian cosmos is its 
division into two mighty political communities as distant from 
each other as the poles asunder in their religious faith, their his- 
torical antecedents, their social organisation, and their natural 
aptitudes; on the one hand the Hindus numbering 190 millions, 
with their polytheistic beliefs, their temples adorned with images 
and idols, their venerations for the sacred cow, their elaborate 
caste distinctions, and their habits of submission to successive 
conquerors—on the other hand, the Mohammedans, a nation of 
50 millions, with their monotheism, their iconoclastic fanaticism, 
their animal sacrifices, their social equality, and their remem- 
brance of the days when, enthroned at Delhi, they reigned su- 
preme from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. To these must be 
added a host of minor nationalities—most of them numbering 
millions—almost as widely differentiated from one another by 
ethnological or political distinctions as are the Hindus from the 
Mohammedans, such as the Sikhs, with their war-like habits and 
traditions and their enthusiastic religious beliefs—the Robillas, the 
Pathans, the Assamese—the Baluchees, and other wild and mar- 
tial tribes on our frontiers—the hillmen dwelling in the folds of 
the Himalayas—our subjects in Burma, Mongol in race and 
Buddhist in religion—the Khonds, Mhairs, and Bheels, and other 
non-Aryan peoples in the centre and south of India—and the en- 
terprising Parsees, with their rapidly developing manufactures 
and commercial interests. Again, amongst these numerous com- 
munities may be found at one and the same moment all the various 


Patton, World Facts and America’s Responsibility, pp. 70-72. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 39 


stages of civilisation through which mankind has passed from the 
pre-historic ages to the present day. At one end of the scale we 
have the naked savage hillman, with his stone weapons, his head- 
hunting, his polyandrous habits, and his childish superstitions ; 
and at the other, the Furopeanised native gentleman, with his 
English costume, his advanced democratic ideas, his Western 
philosophy, and his literary culture; while between the two lie 
layer upon layer, or in close juxtaposition, wandering communi- 
ties with their flocks of goats and moving tents; collections of 
undisciplined warriors, with their blood feuds, their clan organisa- 
tions, and loose tribal government; feudal chiefs and barons with 
their retainers, their seignorial jurisdiction, and their medizval 
notions; and modernised country gentlemen and enterprising 
merchants and manufacturers, with their well-managed estates 
and prosperous enterprises.” °° 


Any race doctrines which assume the unity of the Indian people 
as one brown race deeply divided from us are fallacious. The 
people of India are many peoples and some of them are more akin 
in physiological and cultural qualities to us than they are to one 
another. 

The general truth which needs to be understood is clearly stated 
by Professor Boas: “ The differences between different types of 
man are on the whole small as compared to the range of variation 
in each type. . . . The differences between the different types 
of the white and of the Negro, that have a bearing upon vitality 
and mental ability, are much less than the individual variations in 
each case.” 5® And Professor East says: 


“There is definite evidence that thousands of differences now 
separate the primary races; though it is obvious that hereditary © 
units, presumably much more numerous, are common property of 
all. . . . There are huge series of hereditary units possessed 
exclusively by each. Thus the white race has developed intel- 
lectual qualities superior to the black race, though the black race 
can resist malaria much better than the white. But though racial 
differences are such as to set average levels of performance for 
each, which may distinguish the one from the other, individual 
differences are broader still. In mental capacity, for example, 


% Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, 1918, p. 117. 
Boas, The Mind of Primitive Man, pp. 94, 269. 


40 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


there is a much greater variation within the white race than be- 
tween the mean levels of the white and the black.” ®° 


2. There are no pure or unmixed races unless they may be 
found among some of those ranked lowest. 


“Tf in the past,” says Professor Conklin, “God made of one 
blood all nations of men, it is certain that at present there is being 
made from all nations one blood. By the interbreeding of various 
races and breeds there has come to be a complicated intermixture 
of racial characters in almost every human stock, and this process 
is going on today more rapidly and extensively than ever before. 
Strictly speaking, there are no ‘ pure’ lines in any human group. 
If so-called ‘pure’ English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, German, Rus- 
sian, French, Spanish, or Italian lines are traced back only a few 
generations they are found to include many foreign strains, and 


this is especially true of American families, even those of ‘ purest’ 
blood.” ® 


And long ago Galton set forth the same view in words which 
recognised the changeability of human character and the mutabil- 
ity of race: 


“Man is so educable an animal that it is difficult to distinguish 
between that part of his character which has been acquired 
through education and circumstance, and that which was in the 
original grain of his constitution. His character is exceedingly 
complex, even in members of the simplest and purest savage race; 
much more is it so in civilised races, who have long since been 
exempted from the full rigour of natural selection, and have be- 
come more mongrel in their breed than any other animal on the 
face of the earth.” ° 


This conception of the composite character of race, even of 
races which have thought of themselves as pure races, is coming 
at last into our common American view.® 


© East, Mankind at the Crossroads, p. 31. 

* The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 47. 

@ Inquiries into Human Faculty, Chap. on “ Nurture and Nature.” 

“The Americans of purest lineage, for want of a better characterisa- 
tion, derive their pride of ancestry from the very fact that their forefathers 
were roving emigrants whose stock became mixed with that of many other 
strains.” Wichita, Kansas, Beacon, Oct. 15, 1923. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 41 


The fiction of race purity is greatest, perhaps, in the case of 
the European peoples who represent in reality such an intermix- 
ture that no racial analysis is possible. Even the idea of a great 
Nordic race, fair-haired, long-headed, of pure white blood, the 
racial aristocrats of history, is now called in question. Prof. 
Dixon finds the Nordic race to have been made up of a blending 
of the Caspian and Mediterranean types “but with considerable 
elements of the older Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid.” ® 
Many students join in this idea of a Negroid strain in the Euro- 
pean races, both Mediterranean and Nordic. That the Nordic 
race is passing is true today as it has been true for thousands of 
years. For good or ill all races are passing into the human race. 


“That the Nordic race,” says Dixon, “the result of the long 
blending in the Baltic lands of the remnants of the older Palxo- 
lithic folk with the Caspian and Mediterranean peoples during 
Neolithic times, is gradually passing from the stage would seem, 
from the evidence, to be only too true. But their passing is not a 
recent matter—it has been going on for thousands of years, and 
was already far advanced before the discovery of America. They 
have played their part, and it has been a great part, in the world’s 
history. Asa ‘race,’ as a complex of just these particular factors, 
in just this combination, it seems doomed in the end to be ab- 
sorbed in the wider complex which has been forming ever since 
the Alpine peoples made their appearance in Europe. It is pass- 
ing, just as the purer Mediterranean peoples are and for long have 
been passing, in the sense of sinking into the greater racial entity 
which has been so long in process of growth.” ® 


It is often said that mixed as Europe or India may be, America 
is more mixed still. Thus a writer in a British review writes: 


4 


* The Racial History of Man, p. 510. 

® Du Bois, The Negro, p. 21. 

* Dixon, The Racial History of Man, p. 520; See also Madison Grant, 
The Passing of the Great Race; Gould, America, a Family Matter; and 
New York Times editorial, “ The Perfect Race,’ Nov. 12, 1922: “‘ Histo- 
rians, says Mr. Madison Grant, ‘have never considered race.’ Maybe that 
is because nobody knows just what race is except these inspired Nordic 
theologians. There is reason for their continual falling back on German 
arguments. The religion of a superior race was necessary to pan- 
Germanism; outside of Germany it rather fails to convince. There are 
good arguments against unrestricted immigration, but this Nordic nonsense 
is not one of them.” 


42 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“ To begin with, you must dispossess your mind of the idea that 
there is an American people at all, as we understand a people in 
Europe. . . . If you took the whole population of Europe, 
mixed it roughly in a mortar, added a certain flavouring of 
Africans, Asiatics, and the like, crushed it with your pestle and 
scattered the result thinly over the Continent, you would have 
something approximating to America. It would, however, more 
closely approximate to a ‘people’ than do the Americans at 
present ; for instead of being properly mixed, they are divided into 
ethnographic strata, which only touch at the edges. America tries 
to forget this, and succeeds by vigourous newspaper propaganda 
in making Europe forget it.” & 


But is this a true picture? Far from it. The truth is that there 
is more pure north European stock in the United States than there 
is in Great Britain or in Germany. Mr. Rossiter, formerly of the 
Federal Census office, demonstrates this. In 1910 the native 
whites of native white parentage in the United States numbered 
49,500,000, almost purely Anglo-Saxon. Adding the other Anglo- 
Saxon and Teutonic elements, Mr. Rossiter finds that there are 
“nearly 55,000,000 of men, women, and children of British an- 
cestry, including the descendants in the second or later generations 
of Irish, German, and other immigrants who came to America 
sixty years ago, or earlier, and including also later Anglo-Saxon 
arrivals and their children, welded into one vast and surprisingly 
homogeneous element. The American native stock, with its as-_ 
similated early additions, is the greatest Anglo-Saxon element in 
the world. In numbers it is greater than the entire combined 
population of England, Scotland, Wales and Canada.” © One of 
the Nordic advocates, Mr. Burr, in America’s Race Heritage, 
maintains that four-fifths of our people are still pure Nordic. 
This is his computation of our white population: 


HN Kay ve FL aR RIA ee Ana 90) elie 10, We Baia 80,984,319 
Mediterranean: Cl bertani) iiaeis api sete 3,993,894 
Se NBA hat (a) Chad LONER AO i ll ie AR 4,978,178 


* Article by O. M. Hueffer in National Review, February, 1920, “ Ameri- 
cans Mirrored in the English Mind.” 
8 Atlantic Monthly, August, 1920. Art. “ What Are Americans?” p. 278, 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 43 


PUSSY TOLG ( SCMIbe ura ure aire co dnnhene fo cree 3,391,498 
MODENG WITS eis eet Matsbe take a Oe Wns 323.729 
Mota PM Wwihitceren tee dahl ee re ere 93,671,618 


We shall study later more in detail the composite character of 
the American people. It is, of course, a fact that a great deal of 
French, Irish and Dutch blood is mingled with this Anglo-Saxon 
stock, but it remains true that the great body of the American 
people constitutes among the races of the world, all of which are 
mixed, as pure a race as any, and a purer race than any except 
perhaps the Chinese or some of the African peoples. 

i 3. The unity of man is unmistakably more real and conclusive 
than his racial diversification. Race resemblances and kinships 
are greater than race differences.®* Beneath and above all the 
races is the one human race, one in origin and one in essential 
nature. This is the Biblical teaching and ethnology confirms it. 
“Fair and dark races, long and short-headed, intelligent and 
primitive,” says von Luschan, “all come from one stock.” 7 
“Systematists generally agree,” says Conklin, “that there is at 
present but one species of man, namely, Homo Sapiens, and that, 
all races and varieties have arisen in the first instance from a 
common human stock.” ‘ Man, then,” says the writer of the 
article on “ Ethnology ” in the Encyclopedia Britannica, “ may be 
regarded as specifically one, and thus he must have had an origi- 
nal cradle land, whence the peopling of the earth was brought 
about by migration. The evidence goes to prove that the world 
was peopled by a generalised proto-human form. Each division of 
mankind would thus have had its pleistocene ancestors and would 
have been differentiated into races by the influence of climatic and 
other surroundings.” “* Men are many but man is one, with a 
unity that is rich with the originality of God. As a Hebrew rabbi 
remarked at a little race conference in New York: “ When human 
kings issued coinage they stamped their image on the coins and 


*° Okuma, Fifty Years of New Japan, Vol. II, pp. 461, 477-489. 
® Universal Races Congress, 1921, p. 21. 

1 The Direction of Human Evolution, p . 34, 

” Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. IX, p. 350, 


44 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


they all looked alike. When God stamped His image on men they 
all looked different.” 

The ethnologists can find no evidence for any doctrine which 
denies the unity of men. Our own human experience teaches us 
the same lesson. We are at variance with the human facts and 
with the reality of life until we come into the personal and social 
realisation of the solidarity of humanity. A life like Dr. Steiner’s 
is a condensation of the whole process of human education in the 
fact of racial unity. He sums up his conclusions in the chapter on 
Tolstoy in Against the Current: 


““* Alles ist Rasse’ was the note which dominated the teaching 
of History in all its multitudinous divisions. I sometimes think 
that the opposite is true and that there is nothing in race; for I 
have experienced oneness with all sorts of people, both in the 
lower and the higher spheres of our nature. 

“ This latter theory Tolstoy dogmatically affirmed. ‘ You area 
Jew, you say,’ and he would grasp my arm so tightly that I could 
feel the pulsing blood in his sensitive hands. ‘I am a Russian; 
yet I feel no difference in the touch of your hands, in the look of 
your eyes, and hear none as you speak to me. There are differ- 
ences in the colour of the skin, the shape of the nose and eyes, but 
beneath the surface we are all alike.’ 

“So far as I know, Tolstoy has not changed these views, but I 
doubt that even the man who alters his viewpoint often has 
changed in that one fundamental belief. To me this oneness of 
all men has become a conviction, the one religious doctrine which 
I hold with a scientific dogmatism; for I know Chinamen, whose 
slanting eyes do not prevent them from seeing the world just as I 
see it; Hindus, who, removed from their imprisoning system of 
caste, take this human view of man. I have met Japanese the tra- 
vail of whose soul is akin to mine, and Negroes whose souls are so 
white that one might envy them their purity. 

“ Knowing every shade of Slav, Teuton and Latin, the Aryan 
and Semitic peoples, I have found them all alike at their best and 
at their worst. Dissimilar they are in their various environments, 
reflecting all the differences of climate, food, religion and govern- 
ment; but let them climb the heights to which the soul aspires or 
let them sink to the level to which fleshly lust drags them, and they 
are brother angels or brother brutes.” 


Steiner, Against the Current, p. 211. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 45 


And this is just our problem, “the problem of dealing with men 
who seem to us somehow very widely different from ourselves, in 
physical constitution, in temperament, in all their deeper nature, 
so that we are tempted to think of them as natural strangers to 
our souls, while nevertheless we find that they are stubbornly there 
in our world and that they are men as much determined to live as 
we are and are men who in turn find us as incomprehensible as we 
find them.” ** And yet, incomprehensible only when we conceive 
them as strangers and not as brothers, in truth just like ourselves. 

When did the consciousness of race and of racial differences 
first come to men? What evidence of its presence do we find and 
what forms did it take among the ancient people? Mr. Marvin 
finds the feeling of race consciousness earliest among the ancient 
Greeks. 


“They were the first,” says he, “to distinguish between them- 
selves, the city-founding, freedom-loving, philosophising Hellenes 
and the other races whom they met with, who did not possess 
these qualities and uttered a strange and unintelligible speech, and 
were hence called ‘Barbaroi’ or stammerers. ‘The Romans, as 
they came into the same Greek system of city-states and civilised 
life, were admitted within the pale. We thus gain from the quick, 
questioning, analytic mind of Greece the first division between 
Western Races and the World. . . . Side by side with the birth 
of this consciousness of a superior civilisation, comes the first 
deliberate effort to train up each generation of fresh members of 
the community in the traditions, the habits, and the meaning of 
the civilisation which they had inherited.” ” 


In differentiating themselves from other races the Greeks had 


in mind esthetic and moral and intellectual differences. Mr. “ 


Bevan gathers various utterances of the Greek race-consciousness. 
“““In the case of the barbarians all, except one man, are slaves,’ 
says an oft-quoted line in Euripides. The poets, Aristotle ob- 
serves, speak as if a ‘slave’ and a ‘barbarian’ were really the 
same thing, and he accepts such utterances as stating a serious 


% International Journal of Ethics, April, 1906, pp. 47-50. Art. by Josiah 
Royce, “ Race Questions and Race Prejudices.” 
® Western Races and the World, p. 20. 


46 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


scientific fact. ‘ Persons with the natural faculty of command are 
wanting amongst the barbarians.’” *° “The qualities in virtue of 
which mankind is superior to the other animals,” wrote Plato’s 
contemporary Isocrates, “are the same qualities in virtue of which 
the Hellenes, as a race, are superior to the barbarians, that is, they 
have minds better trained for intelligence and for the expression 
of thought in words.” The Greeks had, therefore, a natural right 
to rule over barbarians, as Euripides wrote in Iphigenia: 


“It is meet. 
That Greece should over Barbarians bear sway, 
Not that Barbarians lord it over Greece ; 
Nature hath formed them slaves, the Grecians free.” 


As a matter of fact in the fourth century B. c. there were more 
Greeks ruled by Persians than there were barbarian subjects of 
Greece, but Isocrates was already preaching the doctrine of the 
duty of Greece to conquer Asia, not to establish any selfish des- 
potism but to extend the blessings of a rational rule conceived in 
terms of guardianship over weaker peoples. Aristotle counselled 
Alexander in his conquests to keep the status of Greek and Asiatic 
quite distinct, but Alexander, says Mr. Bevan, 


“adopted a policy definitely contrary to this advice. Whatever 
his ideas may have been when he first invaded Asia, by the time 
that he was secure in the seat of the Great King, he formed the 
design of a fusion between East and West. His idea was appar- 
ently to initiate a systematic mixing of races—a mode of unifying 
the inhabitants of his Empire in one Eurasian amalgam. . . . It 
does not, of course, follow from Alexander’s desire to merge the 
Greeks in a racial amalgam that he wished their culture to be 
similarly merged in a nondescript syncretism. It is conceivable 
that while he wanted the races mixed, he wished Hellenism as a 
culture to be predominant. The indications rather point to this 
being in his mind. The cities of Greek type which he founded all 
over the empire were to be nurseries of Hellenic life. In a tract 
attributed to Plutarch and written at any rate many centuries after 
Alexander, he is lauded as the belligerent missionary of a higher 


® Western Races and the World, p. 50. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE AT 


culture in the backward East. . . . We must beware of con- 
founding this cultural pride of the Greeks with racial intolerance. 
The Greeks thought poorly of barbarian culture, but, provided a 
barbarian took on the Hellenistic character, they do not seem to 
have subjected him to any social exclusion on account of his blood. 
There is an interesting protest recorded on the part of the great 
Alexandrine geographer Eratosthenes (born 276 B. c.) against the 
racial intolerance involved in Aristotle’s advice to Alexander as to 
his attitude to Greeks and barbarians respectively. The division 
between men, he said, should not go by race but by moral char- 
acter; there were many undesirable sorts of Greeks and many 
civilised kinds of barbarians, such as the Indians and Persians. 
Just so in the Plutarchian tract referred to above it is said that 
the distinction of Hellene and barbarian was not to be taken as 
depending on race or on fashion of dress, but upon virtue and 
vice. There is, even so, a noteworthy assumption implicit in this 
identification of virtue with Hellenism. 

“The educated class all over Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria 
and Egypt during the centuries succeeding Alexander became 
‘Greeks.’ There can have been no very clear line of demarcation 
between the Greeks of barbarian origin and the Greeks of Hel- 
lenic blood.” ™ 


The Roman consciousness of race began with a sense of Rome’s 
indebtedness to the Greek race. The discerning Romans realised 
that they had been themselves among the barbarians and in joke, 
at least, they applied the word to their native culture and even 
spoke of their own language as “a barbarous tongue.” Cicero 
writes to his brother who was Roman Governor of Asia in 60 
B. C., ruling over Greeks: 


“ Seeing that we are set over a race of men who not only possess 
the higher culture, but are held to be the source from which it has 
spread to others, we are above all things bound to repay to them 
that which we have received at their hands. For I am not 
ashamed to confess—the more so, since my life and achievements 
have been such as to place me above all suspicion of laziness and 
frivolity—that whatever I have accomplished has been attained by 
the principles and methods handed down to us by Greek teachers 
and their works. And so, beside the general good faith which we 


"Western Races and the World, pp. 57-60. 


48 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


owe to all men, we are, I think, under a special obligation to 
thatirace.(i) (4 


This racial respect for the Greeks was perhaps a mark of the 
more intelligent and rational feeling. Among the mass of the 
people and with the politicians who manipulated them the ortho- 
dox view was contempt for the Greeks. Cicero speaks of Crassus 
as seeking influence by affecting to despise the Greeks and of 
Antonius doing so by affecting ignorance of their culture. As the 
Roman conquests grew under Julius Cesar it is clear that he cher- 
ished the idea of a cosmopolitan world state. He gave Roman 
citizenship indiscriminately to men of many races, but died with 
his full plans undeveloped. He took Africans and Asiatics to 
Gaul. What happened in the world war in France had happened 
two thousand years before. By the time of Augustus it had be- 
come clear that Rome must find some solution of the problem of 
relation to her subject races of varying degrees of culture. He 
did not repeat Czesar’s experiment of introducing Gauls into the 
Roman Senate which had offended Roman prejudice. He checked 
the infiltration of alien blood into the citizen stock and reimposed 
slavery restrictions which had been relaxed by Cesar. “ Under 
his rule, moreover, and that of his immediate successors, service 
in the legions, implying the full Roman citizenship (which was 
conferred upon those not already possessed thereof on enlistment) 
was in the main confined to Italians, or to members of the extra- 
Italian communities of Roman right, which were not as yet nu- 
merous. . . . But on the other hand Augustus was firm in his 
grasp of the sound principle that service should form the pathway 
to citizenship. ‘This was shown by his reorganisation of the 
‘auxiliary’ regiments, formed by levies of unenfranchised pro- 
vincials. . . . It is likely enough that those who served with 
distinction in the irregular corps passed into one or another branch 
of the regular army, and so were absorbed into the ruling race.” 

The deliberate policy of the Roman Empire was unity by 
Romanisation. A system of municipal institutions was created 


% Western Races and the World, p. 71. 
” [bid., Chapter by H. Stuart Jones on “ The Roman Empire,” pp. 78, 83. 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 49 


which reconciled the unity of the State with a measure of local 
freedom and promoted “the rise of the more backward races of 
the Empire to a higher plane of civilisation” in accordance with 
“a cardinal principle of Rome’s policy to establish an ordered 
graduation of status and privilege by which her subjects might 
climb to an equality with the ruling race.” 8° Little by little the 
successors of Augustus “substituted fresh bonds of union for 
the older cohesive forces of race and tribe” and “built up 
like some coral island of the Southern Seas a new Greco-Roman 
nationality.” 

Rome worked with a far clearer and surer recognition of the 
principle of human unity than characterised Greek thought. 
Aristotelian theory had declared the inequality of human nature. 
Cicero asserted its identity and equality. ‘‘ There is no resem- 
blance,”’ he says, “in nature so great as that between man and 
man, there is no equality so complete, there is only one possible 
definition of mankind, for reason is common to all. Men differ 
indeed in learning, but are equal in the capacity for learning, there 
is no race which under the guidance of reason cannot attain to 
virtue.” § Roman law and modern civilisation rested upon this 
ideal. Ulpian lays down the broad general principle that men are 
by the natural law equal and free. Florentinus treats slavery as 
an institution of the “jus gentium,” which is contrary to nature. 
Tryphoninus says that liberty belongs to the natural law.*? 

And it was not Rome’s theory and practice of human unity 
which led to her downfall. Her welcome to the new races brought 
her far more than they received from her. She lived on through 
them. It was not they which destroyed her. “The cause of de- 
cay,” Mr. Stuart Jones holds, “lay deeper. The failure was a 
failure to solve the fundamental problem (with which we are still 
wrestling) of the relation of the individual to the State, especially 
the Great State.” °* The truth of human unity will destroy only 
those institutions which are built on false ideas of society and 


© Tbid., p. 93. 
8 Tbid., Chap. by A. J. Carlyle on “ The Influence of Christianity,” p. 111. 
BLD D. Liz. 
* Tbid., p. 106. 


50 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


politics. And indeed it is the falsehood of these ideas and not 
the truth of human unity which is the destructive force. 

Here and there in the New Testament there are references to 
these race feelings of Romans and Greeks, to racial prejudices and 
to the absorption of Jewish elements into Roman citizenship.** 
We shall consider later the teaching of Christianity and the New 
Testament with regard to race. But we must turn here to the 
facts as to race feeling among the Hebrews in the centuries before 
the Romans and Greeks. It is significant to note that the word 
“race”? is not found in the King James version except in the sense 
of a running contest. What does this mean? It would seem to 
mean that the conception of race was not a living conception at 
the time the King James version was made. ‘The ancient racial 
problems had been solved or had dropped out of sight. The mod- 
ern ones had not arisen. Hebrew and Greek words accordingly 
which we would now translate “race” were rendered “ people,” 
“nation,” “ heathen,’ “Gentiles.” The Hebrews and the Old 
Testament used three main words which in our modern conception 
mean ‘‘ race.” In Anglicised forms these words were am, goi and 
leom. The first word is from the root “to collect” or “ gather 
together,” hence, a people. It is used of single races or tribes,®° 
of the tribes of Israel,8° of a man’s race or family,®" of the citizens 
as opposed to rulers,’®> of the whole human race.®? The second 
word means a “ confluence” or “ body of men.” It is used of the 
Hebrew nation,®® but in the plural especially of the other nations 
besides Israel,®! often with the added notion of their being foes or 
barbarians,®? or of being strangers to the true religion.°*? The 
third word is from an unused root meaning “to agree,” perhaps 
“to gather together.” It is much less used than the two other 
words, Itis found in.Gen, XXV, 233, XX VIL. 29: Psa vie 
Prov. XXIV, 24; Isa. XVII, 12. Daniel uses a distinctive word 
of his own for nation, ‘ umwah.” ®* There are no clear distinc- 


AC AVIA VIL 22 COMllion in tages WV et Gs 

enw LTR 00 Ft Levine Mao ee Rings) GET on 6, 

nef IC Wy NE OT Miah Boe a Ge MR Peay aT ot al A Mabe 

Fe RSA Laid oie aes, 10, 2O,net ee woril Oa) Lal wen 0.7 Os 

Jer ANN 10) Ezek. XXITE GO XX 11s Psa CX ee, 
Danae 729s VL UM MLS ea VL Zoo, Lia, 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 51 


tions in Hebrew thought or language between race and nation. 
The Hebrews spoke of themselves as many nations and as many 
races, whereas they were, from our way of thinking, only one race 
and one nation. And they spoke of the peoples who were not 
Hebrews as peoples, or nations or races indiscriminately, and 
Daniel speaks of languages in the same order, “All peoples, 
nations and languages.” 

The education of the Hebrews was an education in the sense of 
race distinction and racial mission. It was begun distinctly as a 
process of racial and national differentiation,®® and throughout the 
whole history the Old Testament writers make the purpose and 
meaning of the story as they understood it, perfectly clear. In 
Egypt and then in Canaan they were disciplined to a sense of 
segregated national and racial personality. The conquest of the 
Promised Land was left incomplete as part of this training.°® 
And the long tragic story of the nation’s alternating prosperity 
and suffering is one of the most instructive chapters in the history 
of the race problem, with unequaled light on its significance and 
solution. 

Under this education the ancient Hebrews acquired the sense of 
race distinction in a unique measure. ‘The phrase, ‘‘ The Chosen 
People,” which we apply to them, does not occur in the Old Testa- 
ment, but the word ‘‘ chosen ” is used a few times and the idea, of 
course, was a dominant idea in the consciousness of Israel. The 
question which concerns us, however, is as to Israel’s attitude to 
other races. A careful reading of the Old Testament does not 
support the view that the Hebrews held a narrow race view or dis- 
believed in the solidarity of humanity. Abraham’s call was a call 
not to isolated racial privilege but to racial training for universal 
human service. Other races were conceded to have their own 
culture and worship. The Hebrews were warned against what 
was unworthy in these,?’ and their insufficiency was openly de- 
clared.°8 Adverse and hostile racial judgments occur, but these 


*® Gen. XII, 1-3. * Judges II, 21-III, 4. ” Deut. XIT, 30, 31. 

Pee iineson VIE Gosh lea bl Chron RO XL lb 01723 su Isa: 
oe Vie lSt NAV LL 12s Jers 15,11: 

mbeicaney. to; at Chron. MV ITT 3s XX RTI! 9, 


52 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


are mild in comparison with the racial provocation which the 
moral condition of ancient culture afforded. And if we will com- 
pare the revised version of the Old Testament with the King 
James Version and will note the scores of passages where the 
Revised Version substitutes “nations” for “heathen” in the 
translation we will be surprised to see how much of the supposed 
warrant for the idea of Old Testament race prejudice fades away. 
There are, to be sure, harsh racial notes in some of the old char- 
acters and incidents, but the Spirit of God which was seeking to 
make the Jews pure and faithful was seeking also to make them 
just and brotherly, and was succeeding. ‘They learned to speak in 
friendly terms of the other races.1°° ‘They conceived Jehovah as 
the ruler of other nations as well as their own.’°' God purposed 
to fulfill the “ desire of all nations,” 1°? and peace was to be the 
law of the life of all peoples.1° 

If some Hebrews forgot all this and thought of themselves as 
the one superior race destined to rule the world and of the other 
races as “lesser breeds without the law,” they did only what some 
men in other races have done ever since down until today, and 
what more men are doing now, probably, than ever before. 

Indeed the race problem as we know it is a very modern prob- 
lem. Take any dictionary of quotations and look for quotations on 
race and see if you can find one. Take up at random any dozen 
books on history and politics and look in the index for “ race”’ and 
note the result. There is no article on “race” or the “ race prob- 
lem” in the Encyclopedia Britannica or any other representative 
encyclopedia. What little there is on the subject will be found 
under “ethnology ” or “ anthropology.” 


“Most of our race problems,” says Professor Conklin, “are of 
relatively recent origin and are caused chiefly by the pressure of 
population within certain centres and its overflow into other lands 
as well as by the importation of cheap labour. The white man in 
particular has forced himself on other races, and the pressure of 


Psa. (CU 155) Zech, (DX) 10s zek XOX VIL 23 2s | eee 
Mali) 11. 

risa EV. 5 3 Jer: SEXO VEL F183 sy oel AIT 12: 

ee UE AMG Maan i una 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RACE 53 


whites into the lands of coloured races has gone much farther than 
the reverse. Furthermore, the white man’s demand for cheap 
labour is chiefly responsible for the importation of coloured races 
into the lands of the whites and for the general mixing up of all 
races of mankind. The present competition between races is a 
contest in the relative growth of populations and in economic 
progress rather than in military power.” 1% 


Even if this inevitable and progressive intermingling of the 
races were not occurring, the duty of reaching a right and true 
theory of race relations would remain, for there would still be a 
large measure of necessary inter-race communication. And if this 
were not true and each race were destined to live its own sepa- 
rated economic and social life, how each race would live would 
depend upon its principles of education and its individual and 
social ideals and its conception of what humanity is and what is 
to be its destiny. Each race must work out the true world theory 
and this will be found to be not racial but human. 

But the considerations mentioned by Prof. Conklin are actual 
facts. The races are mingling in the tropics under necessities 
described by Mr. Kidd twenty-five years ago. He conceived that 
white invasion and domination of the tropics was inevitable and 
yet he recognised its difficulty. “In climatic conditions which are 
a burden to him; in the midst of races in a different and lower 
stage of development; divorced from the influences which have 
produced him, from the moral and political environment from 
which he sprang, the white man does not in the end, in such cir- 
cumstances, tend so much to raise the level of the races amongst 
whom he has made his unnatural home, as he tends himself to sink 
slowly to the level around him.” 7° Kidd’s solution was the ac- 
ceptance of the trust under a sense and acknowledgment of 
trusteeship. It seemed to him to be a permanent and enduring 
responsibility in which there was no room “for small-minded 
comparisons between the different merits of civilised races and 
peoples.” He took for granted the reality of the inferiority of the 
uncivilised races and contended for “the holding of the tropics by 


14 Conklin, The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 40. 
1% Kidd, The Control of the Tropics, p. 50. 


54 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the English speaking peoples as a trust for civilisation.” What 
the relation of temperate and tropical races shall be in this situ- 
ation, is among the real race problems we must face. 

And outside of the tropical and of the north and south race 
relations there are the race relationships which run east and west 
in the world and the relationships which are intra-national in 
Europe, and above all now in the United States. What is the 
fundamental element in these relationships? Is it racial, or social, 
or economic? Is it a sense of instinctive racial antipathy or is it 
the reaction of fear? We shall seek light on these questions. 
Meanwhile it is well to emphasise here, as a too often overlooked 
element in the growth of the race problem, two facts brought 
about by modern world developments, the fact of mass contacts 
of races, and the fact of contacts of individuals of those races 
with other races and with individuals of those other races. “A 
primary cause of race friction,’ says a thoughtful Southern 
writer, “is the vague, rather intangible but wholly real feeling of 
“pressure ’ which comes to the white man almost instinctively in 
the presence of a mass of people of a different race. In a certain 
important sense all racial problems are distinctly problems of 
racial distribution. Certainly the definite action of the controlling 
race, particularly as expressed in laws, is determined by the factor 
of the numerical difference between its population and that of the 
inferior group.” 1° The writer is speaking of the relations of the 
black and white races in the Southern States in America, but what 
he says is true in its measure elsewhere and of other races than 
“the white races” to whom he refers. All races everywhere to- 
day are being pressed against other races. ‘The majority and 
minority elements in the association vary greatly. The contacts 
are both direct and personal and also indirect and economic or 
political. They are the most real and significant facts in modern 
history. However the races arose, whatever we may think of race 
and its nature and purpose, the race issues are here as a fact and 
we have the problem of a right and just and peace-making solu- 
tion of the racial questions insistently confronting us. 


16 Stone, The American Race Problem, p. 217. 


II 
THE IDEA OF RACE’ SUPERIORITY 


T is an interesting fact that in behalf of each separate human 

| race the claim of superiority has been made. We need not 

go beyond the list of present races as the colour ethnologists 
define them. 

The red people when they first met the whites were compelled 
to recognise and gradually submit to their power. But they held 
the firm conviction of their own racial superiority. Jedediah 
Morse relates in the American Universal Geography, published in 
Boston in 1796, a story told in 1766 at a salt lick in Ohio to Col. 
G. Morgan by an old Indian chief, eighty-four years of age, who 
was the head of a party of Iroquois and Wyandot Indians. 


“ After the Great Spirit formed the world, he made the various 
birds and beasts which now inhabit it. He also made man, but 
having formed him white and very imperfect and ill-tempered he 
placed him on one side of it where he now inhabits and from 
whence he has lately found a passage across the water to be a 
plague to us. As the Great Spirit was not pleased with this, his 
work, he took of black clay and made what you call a Negro with 
a woolly head. This black man was made better than the white 
man, but still he did not answer the wish of the Great Spirit; that 
is, he was imperfect. At last, the Great Spirit, having procured 
a piece of pure red clay, formed from it the Red Man, perfectly 
to his mind, and he was so well pleased with him that he placed 
him on this great island, separate from the white and black men; 
and gave him rules for his conduct, promising happiness in pro- 
portion as they should be observed. He increased exceedingly and 
was perfectly happy for ages; but the foolish young people, at 
length forgetting his rules, became exceedingly ill-tempered and 
wicked. In consequence of this, the Great Spirit created the great 
buffaloes, the bones of which you now see before us; these made 
war upon the human species alone, and destroyed all but a few, 
who repented and promised the Great Spirit to live according to 


55 


56 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


his laws if he would restrain the devouring enemy. Whereupon 
he sent lightning and thunder and destroyed the whole race in this 
spot, but excepted a male and female which he shut up in yonder 
mountain, ready to let loose again, should occasion require.”* __ 


The modern Indian does not speak so strongly but he does not 
in his heart accept the idea of his racial inferiority. In the Old 
Oregon Trail celebration at Meacham, Oregon, on President 
Harding’s Alaskan trip, Chief Sumkin, an aged Indian of eighty- 
seven years, said to the President: “I know that friendship is one 
of the best things that can be known in this world, and I say the 
truth when I speak. The reason I say that is because I do not be- 
lieve that my race is better than yours. I believe that all races in 
this world are just as good as one another. One of the best things 
we can do is to meet friends.” ‘‘ We ought to understand each 
other in friendship and peace,” the President replied.? 

How inferior is a race which produces such a tale as this? 


“TAKES Captor To Hospirat. 
“Indian Accused of Murder Mushes too Miles in Alaska 
with O fficer. 


“Anchorage, Alaska, April 18 (Associated Press)—While 
taking an Indian accused of murder from Fort Gibbon to Fair- 
banks recently Deputy United States Marshal FE. B. Webster was 
stricken with appendicitis. The Marshal’s prisoner placed him on 
the sled with which they had been travelling and mushed more 
than a hundred miles with him to a hospital where an operation 
was performed.” 


pager 

The Chinese when they first met the white races were entirely 
assured of the unique and primary place of the yellow people and 
for generations treated the Western nations with pride and scorn. 
And who can deny the grounds of their judgment? They have 
been for ages the great center of light and civilisation in Central 
and Eastern Asia. They have given literature and religion to the 
millions of Korea and Japan. Even a generation of Western 


* Morse, The American Universal Geography, Part I, p. 194, Boston, 1796, 
* New York Times, July 5, 1923. 
* New York Times, April 19, 1923. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 57 


civilisation has not shaken Chinese influence off the thought and 
politics and ethics of Japan. Printing originated with the 
Chinese, and was used by them hundreds of years before it was 
known in the West. The magnetic needle, gunpowder, silk fab- 
rics, chinaware and porcelain were old tales with the Chinese 
before our civilisation began. Our latest ideas were wrought out 
by the Chinese ages ago,—Civil Service examinations and assign- 
ment of office for merit and tested capacity, trades unions and 
organisations, the sense of local responsibility in municipal ad- 
ministration. It is not to be wondered at that China has always 
looked down upon the other races and deemed them barbarians. 
And even after contact with the Western races this conviction 
remained. “ Western nations, taken as a whole, do not impress 
educated Chinese with a sense of the superiority of such nations 
to China. This feeling was admirably exemplified in the reply of 
His Excellency Kuo, former Chinese Minister to Great Britain, 
when told, in answer to a question, that in Dr. Legge’s opinion 
the moral condition of England is higher than that of China. 
After pausing to take in this judgment in all its bearings, His Ex- 
cellency replied, with deep feeling, ‘I am very much surprised.’ ” * 
“ China can do without foreigners, whilst foreigners are dependent 
on us,’ said Hia Sieh.® “ We say to the Western world,” says a 
Chinese writer, Lowe Chuan-hwa, “do not think we are fools, 
for however you may cloak your policies of imperialism with 
benevolent pretensions of altruism, your hypocrisy is glowingly 
manifest to the intelligent people of Han. And surely a review of 
history reveals that nations which are blind to cruelty and injus- 
tice, and deaf to the voice of reason and fairness can be taught 
only with the whirring swish of the sword. You are teaching us 
that force with or without Christianity is our only redeemer.” ° 
And there are Westerners today who prefer the civilisation of the 
yellow race to that of the white. “I am inclined to think,” says 
Bertrand Russell, “ that Chinese life brings more happiness to the 
Chinese than English life does to us. . . . The Chinese are 


*Smith, Chinese Characteristics, p. 105. 
5 Chinese Intercourse with Europe, trans. by E. H. Parker, p. 55. 
°The Nation, Feb. 7, 1923. Art. “ The Christian Peril in China.” 


58 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


gentle, urbane, seeking only justice and freedom. They have a 
civilisation superior to ours in all that makes for human happi- 
ness.” 7 ‘This is not true, but most of the Chinese race have 
hitherto believed it. 

And the other great branch of the yellow race, the Japanese, 
although they are clearly a mixture of the yellow and the brown 
races, swinging down through the Chosen peninsula and up from 
the Dravidian areas in the islands to the south, are even more sure 
of their racial ascendency. The Japanese race is heaven- 
descended. ‘The Emperors of our country,” says Dr. Kakehi, 
“are persons equipped with qualities without parallel in the 
world; they are both the centers of (religious) faith and of tem- 
poral power. ‘The center of this phenomenal world is the 
Mikado’s land (Mi-kuni, 7. e., Japan). From this center we must 
expand this Great Spirit throughout the world.” Kakehi declares 
with enthusiasm, “There are voices which cry, ‘Great Japan is 
the Land of the Gods.’ Nor is this to be wondered at. It is a true 
statement of fact. It is a matter of course. The expansion of 
Great Japan throughout the world and the elevation of the entire 
world into the Land of the Gods is the urgent business of the 
present, and again, it is our eternal and unchanging object.” ® 
‘‘ Just as our country possesses in the towering peak of Mt. Fuji,” 
says Dr. Kato, “a natural beauty unsurpassed in all the world, 
so also this Orient land of virtuous men, with its historical record 
stretching across three thousand boundless years, with its Imperial 
House above reaching in unbroken lineage back to immemorial 
ages, with its subjects below looking up to this Line as it towers 
beyond mountains and stars, with its heroes and remarkable 
men, a country, indeed, not unworthy the name, ‘The Land 
of the Gods,’ this land has produced a national organisation 
that is peerless in the earth.”® Dr. Uesugi Shinkichi boldly 


7 Russell, The Problem of China, pp. 73, 175; Atlantic Monthly, March, 
1924. Art. by Upton Close, “Some Asian Views of White Culture;” see 
also two books by Englishmen posing as Chinese, Letters from a Chinese 
Offictal, and Lin Shao-Yang, A Chinese Appeal Concerning Christian 
Missions. 

*Holtom, The Political Philosophy of Modern Shinto, p. 107. 

* Ibid., p. 119. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 59 


contrasts the wreckage of the West with the saving mission of 
Japan: 


“It is now most clear that the salvation of the entire human 
race is the mission of our empire. Nations are now in a condition 
of disorder. There are classes within the nations, each class strug- 
gling for its own interests and each thinking the other an irrecon- 
cilable enemy. Radicalism is spreading abroad. The poison of 
the disease penetrates flesh and bones and threatens to overthrow 
the state. The idea of reliance upon the state is conspicuously 
weakened. The heart of man has lost its power to cooperate. 
Individuals do as they please, acting dissolutely without restric- 
tion. The capitalistic classes of England and America, flushed 
with the victory of the Great War, have become arrogant and 
domineering throughout the world and are giving rein to un- 
bounded greed. Behold the world is full of the struggle between 
capital and labour. They are fallen into the pit. The hell of 
fighting and bloodshed has appeared on earth. When we observe 
such conditions, there is not one of our people who does not 
believe that, if they only had our Emperor as theirs, they would 
not come to such extremity. . . . Our people, through the 
benevolent virtue of the Emperors, have attained a national con- 
stitution that is without parallel in the world. . . . Now, if all 
the human race should come to look up to the virtue of our Em- 
peror and should come to live under that influence, then there 
would be light for the future of humanity. Thus the world can 
be saved from destruction. Thus life can be lived within the 
realms of goodness and beauty. Of a truth, great is the mission 
of our nation,” 1° 


It is indeed great and the people of that nation are not to be set 
down as a race biologically and socially inferior.14 And the 
Koreans from whom the Japanese received much of their art and 
the Chinese from whom Japan took politics and philosophy deem 
themselves superior to the Japanese. 


© 1 btd.,» p. 126. 

Eliot, Japanese Characteristics. Some of the advocates of Japanese 
exclusion from the United States frankly rest their case on the acknowl- 
edgment of elements of superiority in Japanese character. Mr. McClatchy 
said that the reasons for special legislation regarding the Japanese were 
“complimentary rather than otherwise,’ and Dr. Wheeler said, “ Their 
good taste, persistent industry, their excellent qualities and their virtues 
render their presence amongst us a pitiful danger.” Racial Relations and 
the Christian Ideal, pp. 42, 48. 


60 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


The brown race is, as we have seen, no single race at all, al- 
though one contemporary school of race theorists deals with it as 
a unity. The Indian leaders, however they approve or endure 
the preservation of race and caste distinction in India, do not con- 
cede for a moment the superiority of the white race or of white 
civilisation. The current tendency of thought in India is contempt 
for Western culture and the exaltation of the past of India. 
Rabindranath Tagore is only one, although he is in the West the 
best known, of the spokesmen of the mind of India. Read his 
description of the East: 


“Take it in whatever spirit you like, here is India, of about 
fifty centuries at least, who tried to live peacefully and think 
deeply, the India devoid of all politics, whose one ambition has 
been to know this world as of soul, to live here every moment of 
her life in the meek spirit of adoration, in the glad consciousness 
of an eternal and personal relationship with it.” 


Then turn to his parallel description of the West: 


“We have seen this great stream of civilisation choking itself 
from débris carried by its innumerable channels. We have seen 
that with all its vaunted love of humanity it has proved itself the 
greatest menace to man, far worse than the sudden outbursts of 
nomadic barbarism from which men suffered in the early ages of 
history. We have seen that, in spite of its boasted love of free- 
dom, it has produced worse forms of slavery than ever were cur- 
rent in earlier societies—slavery whose chains are unbreakable, 
either because they are unseen or because they assume the names 
and appearance of freedom. We have seen, under the spell of its 
gigantic sordidness, man losing faith in all the heroic ideals of life 
which have made him great.” 


Finally, hear his injunction to his countrymen after he has 
summed up the horrors of modern civilisation: 


“Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud 
and the powerful 
With your white robe of simpleness. 
Let your crown be of humility, your freedom the freedom 
of the soul. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 61 


Build God’s throne daily upon the ample bareness of your 
poverty, 

And know that what is huge is not great and pride is not 
everlasting.” 1° 


And Mr. Gandhi, who has been a far greater force in India, has 
preached the same doctrine. “It behooves every lover of India to 
cling to the old Indian civilisation even as a child clings to its 
mother’s breast.’ “In order to restore India to its pristine con- 
dition, we have to return to it.” “ Machinery is the chief symbol 
of modern civilisation. It represents a great sin.” ‘“ We should 
only do what we can with our hands and feet.” He appeals for 
the retention of “the same kind of cottages that we had in former 
times.” “ Railways accentuate the evil nature of man.” They 
should be given up together with tram cars and electric lights. 
“ Hand-made earthen saucers” should be used as lamps. ‘‘ Where 
this cursed modern civilisation has not reached, India remains as it 
was before. The English do not rule over them. . . . I would 
certainly advise you to go into the interior that has not yet been 
polluted by the railways and to live there for six months. You 
might then be patriotic and speak of home rule. Now you see 
what I consider to be real civilisation.” 1% He opposes modern 
education. “ Tilak and Ram Mohun Roy,” he has recently said, 
“would have been far greater men if they had not had the con- 
tagion of English learning.” And in his paper, Young India, Jan. 
26, 1921, he wrote: “ My conviction is deeper today than ever. I 
feel that if India would discard modern civilisation she can only 
gain by doing so.” “ The glitter of western civilisation, its insti- 
tutions and its systems as such have no charm for India. Her 
children are not going to live a life individual or corporate that is 
set by this standard,” says another Indian writer.’* 

And the black race, too, is human like the other races. It be- 


The East and the West, Jan., 1923, Art. by Lord Meston on “ India at 
the Crossways,” p. 68; see Tagore’s paper, “India has her Renaissance,” in 
the Allahabad Leader, Oct. 29, ’22, with a poem on “ Juzwat i Varma,” in 
Arya Samaj, April, 1923. 

See Wellock, India’s Awakening, p. 29 f. 

* See Bharat Sevak, March, 1923, p. 9. 


62 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


lieves in its superiority and sees no sublimity in the culture of the 
white race. One of their own writers, a French Negro, speaks for 
them with no pride but only with the desire to enable the white 
race to help Africa. “Civilisation,” he says, “civilisation, pride 
of the Europeans and charnel house of innocents. . . . You 
have built your kingdom on corpses. Whatever you wish, what- 
ever you do, you move in lies. At sight of you, gushing tears, 
shrieks of agony. You are might prevailing over right. You are 
not a torch, you are a conflagration. You devour whatever you 
touch. . . . If we knew of what vileness the great colonial life 
is composed, of what daily vileness, we should talk of it less, we 
should not talk of it at all.” 2° And his book is a picture of the 
life the Africans whom he describes preferred to the life of the 
white people they knew and obeyed and despised. Du Bois denies 
the inferiority of the African. ‘“ When the European was still 
satisfied with rude stone tools, the Africans had invented or 
adopted the art of smelting iron,” says Boas. “ We are indebted 
to the Negro for the very keystone of our modern civilisation and 
we owe him the discovery of iron,” says Torday. 


“Long before cotton weaving was a British industry, West 
Africa and the Soudan were supplying a large part of the world 
with cotton cloth. . . . Viewing the Basuto National Assembly 
in South Africa, Lord Bryce recently wrote, ‘The resemblance to 
the primary assemblies of the early peoples of Europe is close 
enough to add another to the arguments which discredit the theory 
that there is any such thing as an Aryan type of institutions.’ 

Perhaps no race has shown in its earlier development a 
more magnificent art impulse than the Negro. . . . In dispo- 
sition the Negro is among the most lovable of men.” 7° 


And others think as highly of the Negro’s claim to superiority. 
The old Indian chief who talked to Col. Morgan ranked the 
Negro above the white and next to the Indian. Park, too, says of 
him: “The Negro is, by natural disposition, neither an intel- 
lectual nor an idealist, like the Jew; nor a brooding introspective 


* Rene Maran, Batouala, pp. 10, 13. 
* Du Bois, The Negro, pp. 114, 115, 123, 137. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 63 


like the East Indian, nor pioneer and frontierman like the Anglo- 
Saxon. He is primarily an artist, living life for its own sake. His 
métier is expression rather than action. He is, so to speak, the 
lady among the races.”17 Few would assent to such a racial 
judgment, but few would dissent from the statement of von 
Luschan regarding individuals, “I am still seriously convinced 
that certain white men may be on a lower intellectual and moral 
level than certain coloured Africans.” 18 And a noted French 
musical critic, Paul Landorwey, cannot speak too highly of the 
Negro tenor, Roland Hayes, whom no racial strain has disquali- 
fied. “I doubt,” says he, “if we have in Paris a single tenor who 
knows as well his métier, and who handles his voice with such a 
mastery. . . . Roland Hayes is not at all a primitive in whom 
the instinct dominates. He would be incapable of singing as he 
has done the old pieces of Handel, of Caldara, of Paradies, of 
Mozart, which require a talent of execution subtle and re- 
Heouve man. 1.) Let: is) remember this; ‘Roland’ Hayes,'/ the 
Negro singer,’ is a very great artist.”7® Our race theories must 
make room in the world for such gifts from one race to all races.?° 
“A half-dozen financially fortunate ones go to Atlanta opera once 
every 365 days,” says a Nashville paper. “ And Fisk University 
generously and artistically purveys choral art for all the rest of 
us ; that is, all the rest of us who have the taste and discrimination 
to avail ourselves of it when it is offered.” 74 

The Latin American people, like the people of India, are a com- 
plex of races rather than a single race and, like the Indians, they 
are as convinced as any race of their right to deny any charges of 
racial inferiority. And at the present time they are specially clear 
that our North American culture is not an enviable or desirable 
thing, and that in comparison with it, except for its energy and 


“Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, p. 136. 

8 Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 22. 

Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department Information 
Service, Nov. 3, 1923, quoting from the Musical Courter. 

® See also article in the Nashville Banner, April 27, 1923, expressing the 
obligation of Nashville to the Negro chorus of Fisk University which alone 
provides opera music for the city. 

* Quoted in Fisk University News, May, 1923, pp. 5-8. 


64 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


commercial efficiency, their own is better. ‘“ We Latin Ameri- 


39 


cans,’ says José Enrique Rodo, “have an inheritance of race, a 
great ethnic tradition to maintain, a sacred bond which unites us 
to immortal pages of history and puts us on our honour to pre- 
serve this for the future.” *? 


“Orphaned of the profound tradition that attended his birth, 
the North American has not yet replaced the inspiring ideality of 
his past with any high unselfish conception of the future. He 
lives for the immediate reality of the present, and for this sub- 
ordinates all his activities in the egoism of material well-being, 
albeit both individual and collective. . . . Not even the selfish- 
ness of patriotism, for want of higher impulses, nor the pride of 
race, both of which transfigured and exalted in ancient days even 
the prosaic hardness of the life of Rome, can light a glimmer of 
ideality or beauty in a people where a cosmopolite confusion and 
the atomism of a badly understood democracy impede the forma- 
tion of a veritable national conscience. . . . If one had to char- 
acterise his taste, in a word, it would be that which in itself 
involves the negation of great art; strained brutality of effect, 
insensibility to soft tones or an exquisite style, the cult of bigness, 
and that sensationalism which excludes all noble serenity as incom- 
patible with the hurry of his hectic life. . . . Any casual ob- 
server of their political customs will tell you how the obsession of 
material interest tends steadily to enervate and eradicate the senti- 
ment of law or right. . . . They lack that great gift of amia- 
bility—likeableness, in a lofty sense; that extraordinary power of 
sympathy with which those races endowed by Providence for the 
task of education know how to make of their culture a beauty, as 
did Greece, lovable, eternal, and yet always with something of 
their own.” Against all this Rodo holds up the Latin American 
ideal: “ Hospitable to things of the spirit, and not only to the 
immigrant throngs; thoughtful, without sacrificing its energy of 
action; serene and strong and withal full of generous enthusiasm ; 
resplendent with the charm of morning calm like the smile of a 
waking infant, yet with the light of awakening thought.” 7% 


And Gabriella Mistral, the Chilean poetess, says that there are 
two things that must unite Spanish America, first, the beautiful 
Spanish language, and second, the pain caused by the United 


* Ariel, p. 93. 
8 Ariel, pp. 106, 111, 116, 122, 137. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 65 


States, e. g., in Panama, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Mexico. If 
we think these judgments unjust, are we sure that our own racial 
judgments are not so?** Are weas fair toward the South Ameri- 
cans as we wish them to be toward us? One of their number, 
Enrique Gil, sets us an example in his address before the Ateneo 
Hispano Americano, at Buenos Aires, May 19, 1922. He alludes 
to the common declaration of the Argentinos, “ But, men, we are 
much more advanced than the Americans, we possess more cul- 
ture,’ and out of his own personal experiences in the United 
States he speaks for us in the interest of a “real and effective 
understanding.” 7° 

Even so-called savage people have been convinced of the real 
superiority of their race culture to that of other people who sup- 
posed themselves to be advanced races. When the United States 
and Great Britain and Germany partitioned the Samoan Islands, 
Malietoa Tanu protested against such a disposition of his kingdom 
and also addressed a letter to the London Times in which he as- 
serted that “the civilisation which had been introduced by the for- 
eign governments into Polynesia was inferior to that which its 
inhabitants previously possessed.” 7° 

One of the most recent writers on the race question, Professor 
Josey, in Race and Nattonal Solidarity, sets forth the superiority 
of the white race as the basis of its right to dominate the world 
and argues for the frank rejection of all universalistic conceptions 
and of the weakness of the ideal of human brotherhood and for 
the bold acceptance of the mission of white world supremacy : 


“Races differ greatly in their ability to impose their will on 
nature and on other men. The complexity of their mental pro- 
cesses, their initiative and ingenuity, their contributions to the 


* See Calderon’s criticism of North American culture and race character 
in Latin America, Its Rise and Progress, pp. 288 ff., 308, 311. 

> Inter-America, Feb., 1923. Art. “An Argentine’s Impressions of the 
United States.” See also President Harding’s address at the unveiling of 
the statue of Bolivar in New York City, April 19, 1921, in “ International 
Conciliation,’ Inter American Division Bulletin, No. 25, p. 24. 

Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 397. See account of the 
breaking down of old civilisation by the new, with evil moral results, in 
article by C. W. Abel, “ Conflicting Forces in Papua,” in The Missionary 
Rewew of the World, May, 1923. 


66 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


welfare of mankind are by no means equal. In all these the white 
race excels. Just aS we see man as a Species dominating, excelling, 
and living on other forms of life, so we see the white race excel- 
ling the other races, acting as masters, and drawing to themselves 
a large part of the wealth of the world. The white races dominate 
mankind. They are the rulers par excellence. In the white man 
the evolutionary process seems to have reached its highest point. 
He is its culminating achievement.” 77 


Other branches of the Aryan race cherish the same ideas. 


“From the Avesta’s time,’ writes Mirza Saeed Khan, of 
Teheran, ‘‘ Persians have considered all Aryan things as best and 
have looked down upon all that is non-Aryan and have thought of 
their home land as ‘the good abode’ given them by the Ahar 
Mazda. ‘These prejudices have been perpetuated, and their an- 
cient success has led the Persians to consider themselves mentally 
and physically superior to all other nations. And if opportunity 
is given to them certainly they prove themselves to be in mental 
capacity inferior to none. And their country which in most parts 
bears no trees to shelter from the sun in summer and to give fuel 
for the severe winters is considered the best of all countries.” 78 


The conviction of human inequality, generalised into the sense 
of race or class superiority, appears to be universal. It surely is 
very ancient. No one race or class is left alone in the possession 
of the feeling of privilege and pride. It was and is an essential 
defect of the heathen temper in men that they disbelieve in equal- 
ity in the interest of the assertion of their superiority of status or 
privilege over other races. The ancient world was under this 
curse and the spirit of race superiority in the modern world per- 
petuates it. 


“Among the ancients the thought of Humanity, as a vital or- 


7 Op. cit., p. 225. “No one will question that the Western nations have 
assumed a superior attitude towards the Eastern peoples, whose civilisation 
is centuries older than theirs, a civilisation which the peoples of the East 
still consider superior to that of the West. . . . This spirit of domina- 
tion is not confined to governments. ‘The individual European in his rela- 
tion with the Eastern peoples sometimes manifests a contempt for their 
present feelings which can only produce deep-seated resentment.” Rowell, 
The British Empire and World Peace, p. 95. 

* Letter from Mirza Saeed Khan, M.D., Teheran, July 9, 1923. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 67 


ganism, each part related to every other, and all capable of being 
pervaded by one supreme spirit,—this was not a thought of the 
highest philosophy, or of the subtlest and most delicate song. It 
came by Him who surpassed philosophers, as far as He surpassed 
the rigourous limitations of Hebrew sympathy. The local reli- 
gions had tended always to isolate states ; while individual liberties 
shrank, in each, in precise proportion to such isolation. The indi- 
vidual existed for the interest of the state; and classes thus in- 
evitably arose, with rights varying according to their fortunate 
fitness to serve it. So came the great number of the free poor at 
Athens; who might hear Demosthenes from the Bema, or see 
Pericles in the Pnyx, but who had no part in public affairs. So 
came the almost unending struggle between plebeians and patri- 
cians at Rome, with the final practical disappearance from Italy 
of the middle class of small proprietors. And so came the senti- 
ment, repeated by Plautus with brutal frankness, that ‘a man is 
a wolf to another man whom he does not know ’; the more terrible 
maxim of one nobler than Plautus—whose writings have given to 
the name of Plato a lustre which neither Propyle nor Parthenon 
could equally give to that of Pericles—that the poor and hungry, 
being condemned by their appeals for assistance, should be ex- 
pelled from market-place and city, and ‘the country be cleared of 
that sort of animal.’ ”’ 9 


Some ethnologists today revive and reaffirm this old pre- 
Christian doctrine of a pluralistic humanity. They deride the 
language of the American Declaration of Independence with its 
assertion of human equality. And it is obvious enough that all 
men are not equal in height or weight or colour or wealth or in- 
tellectual capacity or in an hundred other ways. But the broad 
principle of human equality, of the solidarity of men, of the unity 
of mankind remains nevertheless the true working principle.®° 
Any departure from it, when it is formulated or acted upon in 
the interest of privilege and not of service, of isolation and not of 
brotherhood, reduces itself to folly or to harm. A writer at the 
Universal Races Congress presented a paper on “ The Intellectual 
Standing of Different Races and their Respective Opportunities 
for Culture,” in which he determined the opportunities for culture 
in any given people or race by the number of pupils and students 


* Storrs’s, The Divine Origin of Christianity, p. 164. 
® Westcott, The Gospel of the Resurrection. Notice to 2nd edition. 


68 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


per unit of the population and the average intellectual standing of 
the same people by the number of university students per unit of 
the population, and then calculated the natural capacity of the peo- 
ple by dividing Intellectual Standing by Opportunity for Culture. 
By such calculation he ranks the United States first in intellectual 
standing, France fourth, Great Britain sixth, Spain seventh, Ger- 
many ninth, Japan eighteenth, Negroes in the United States twenti- 
eth, Mexico twenty-first, Russia twenty-third, India twenty-fourth. 
In natural capacity he ranks the United States first, Mexico sixth, 
Russia tenth, Japan eleventh, Germany twelfth, Great Britain 
fourteenth, India sixteenth. This writer says that “the Negro in 
Africa does not appear to be able to rise beyond the standard of 
elementary education, several attempts to impart secondary edu- 
cation having failed.” 1 Other more fantastic judgments abound. 
Some are ready to arrange the races in a gradation of rank by 
head measurements, or facial angles, or aptitude for natural 
science or for metaphysics or for war. And some are interested 
in only one broad generalisation which exalts the white or more 
particularly the Nordic race and groups all the other races to- 
gether in one “tide of colour.” In his introduction to Mr. Stod- 
dard’s book, The Rising Tide of Colour, Mr. Madison Grant sets 
forth this thesis : *? ey 


“Tf this great race, (1. e., the Nordic) with its capacity for lead- 
ership and fighting, should ultimately pass, with it would pass that 
which we call civilisation. It would be succeeded by an unstable 
and bastardised population, where worth and merit would have no 
inherent right to leadership and among which a new and darker 
age would blot out our racial inheritance. 

“Such a catastrophe cannot threaten if the Nordic race will 
gather itself together in time, shake off the shackles of an in- 
veterate altruism, discard the vain phantom of internationalism, 
and reassert the pride of race and the right of merit to rule. 

“The Nordic race has been driven from many of its lands, but 
still grasps firmly the control of the world, and it is certainly not 


* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 88. 

See a criticism of this view in New York Times, Current History, 
April, 1924. Art. by Johan J. Smertenks, “The Claim of ‘Nordic’ Race 
Superiority,” pp. 15-23. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 69 


at a greater numerical disadvantage than often before in contrast 
to the teeming population of eastern Asta. 

“It has repeatedly been confronted with crises where the acci- 
dent of battle, or the genius of a leader, saved a well-nigh hopeless 
day. It has survived defeat, it has survived the greater danger of 
victory, and, if it takes warning in time, it may face the future 
with assurance. Fight it must, but let that fight be not a civil war 
against its own blood kindred but against the dangerous foreign 
races, whether they advance sword in hand or in the more 1n- 
sidious guise of beggars at our gates, pleading for admittance to 
share our prosperity.” °° 


Mr. Stoddard sees the decay of the white dominance over the 
other races which Mr. Grant appears to deem the racial right of 
the white people. 


“The reader will remember,” he says, “ how west-central Asia, 
which in the dawn of history was predominantly white man’s 
country, is today racially brown man’s land in which white blood 
survives only as vestigial traces of vanishing significance. If this 
portion of Asia, the former seat of mighty white empires and 
possibly the very homeland of the white race itself, should have 
so entirely changed its ethnic character, what assurance can the 
most impressive political panorama give us that the present world- 
order may not swiftly and utterly pass away? 

“The force of this query is exemplified when we turn from the 
political to the racial map of the globe. What a transformation! 
Instead of a world politically nine-tenths white, we see a world of 
which only four-tenths at the most can be considered predomi- 
nantly white in blood, the rest of the world being inhabited mainly 
by the other primary races of mankind—yellows, browns, blacks, 
and reds. Speaking by continents, Europe, North America to the 
Rio Grande, the southern portion of South America, the Siberian 
part of Asia, and Australasia constitute the real white world: 
while the bulk of Asia, virtually the whole of Africa, and most of 
Central and South America form the world of colour. The re- 
spective areas of these two racially contrasted worlds are 22,- 
OCO,000 square miles for the whites and 31,000,000 square miles 
for the coloured races. Furthermore, it must be remembered that 
fully one-third of the white area (notably Australasia and $1- 
beria) is very thinly inhabited and is thus held by a very slender 


* Stoddard, The Rising Tide of Colour, p. 29 f. 


70 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


racial tenure—the only tenure which counts in the long run.” * 


“One thing is certain: the white man will have to recognise that 
the practically absolute world-dominion which he exercised during 
the nineteenth century can no longer be maintained.” *° 


This is deemed a lamentable prospect not because the principle 
of the domination of the other races by the white race is a wrong 
principle, but because the white race is no longer able as the 
stronger race to dominate the rest, and the other races are no 
longer willing as the inferior races to be dominated. 

Over against the theories of this school our modern biologists 
and sociologists alike reject the notion of prescriptive race su- 
periority. ‘‘ The old idea of absolute stability of human types,” 
says Boas, “must evidently be given up and with it the belief of 
the hereditary superiority of certain types over others.” °° “In 
vain,” says Finot, “is the attempt to endow certain privileged 
nations with every virtue by overwhelming their adversaries with 
condemnation to eternal inferiority.” °* East believes in white 
race superiority, but he calls the “ belief in the general superiority 
of all the individuals of one race over all the individuals of an- 
other ” indefensible.*® 


“Tt will materially help,’ says Kidd in The Control of the 
Tropics, “towards the solution of this and other difficult problems, 
if we are in a position, as it appears we shall be, to say with 
greater clearness in the future, than we have been able to do in 
the past, what it is constitutes superiority and inferiority of race. 
We shall probably have to set aside many of our old ideas on the 
subject. Neither in respect alone of colour, nor of descent, nor 
even of the possession of high intellectual capacity, can science 
give us any warrant for speaking of one race as superior to 
another. ‘The evolution which man is undergoing is, over and 
above everything else, a social evolution. There is, therefore, 
but one absolute test of superiority. It is only the race possessing 


a pid ip. St, 

© 1 bid., D. 220s 

*% Universal Races Congress, 1911, art. on “Instability of Human Types,” 
by Franz Boas, p. 103. 

Race Prejudice, p. 316. 

*® East, Mankind at the Crossroads, p. 132. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 71 


in the highest degree the qualities contributing to social efficiency 
that can be recognised as having any claim to superiority.” °° 


“We have wasted an infinite amount of time,” says Mr. Stone, 


“in interminable controversies over the relative superiority and 
inferiority of different races. Such discussions have a certain 
value when conducted by scientific men in a purely scientific spirit. 
But for the purpose of explaining or establishing any fixed prin- 
ciple of race relations they are little better than worthless. The 
Japanese is doubtless quite well satisfied of the superiority of his 
people over the mushroom growths of western civilisation, and 
finds no difficulty in borrowing from the latter whatever is worth 
reproducing, and improving on it in adapting it to his own racial 
needs. The Chinese do not waste their time in idle chatter over 
the relative status of their race as compared with the white bar- 
barians who have intruded themselves upon them with their 
grotesque customs, their heathenish ideas, and their childishly new 
religion. The Hindu regards with veiled contempt the racial pre- 
tensions of his conqueror, and, while biding the time when the 
darker races of the earth shall once more come into their own, 
does not bother himself with such an idle question as to whether 
his temporary overlord is his racial equal. Only the white man 
writes volumes to establish on paper the fact of a superiority 
which is either self-evident and not in need of demonstration, on 
the one hand, or is not a fact and is not demonstrable, on the other. 
The really important matter is one about which there need be little 
dispute—the fact of racial differences. It is the practical question 
of differences—the fundamental differences of physical appear- 
ance, of mental habit and thought, of social customs and religious 
beliefs, of the thousand and one things keenly and clearly ap- 
preciable, yet sometimes elusive and undefinable—these are the 
things which at once create and find expression in what we call 
race problems and race prejudices, for want of better terms. In 
just so far as these differences are fixed and permanently associ- 
ated characteristics of two groups of people will the antipathies 
and problems between the two be permanent.” *° 


But as a matter of fact the implication of inferiority and su- 


® The Control of the Tropics, p. 97 f. 

“ Adapted by Park & Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, 
p. 632, from Stone, “Is Race Friction between Blacks and Whites in the 
United States Growing and Inevitable?” in the American Journal of Soci- 
ology, XIII, 1907-8, pp. 677-696. 


72 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


periority is there and makes the difficulty. It is not simply differ- 
ence. It is the judgment of inferiority. But biologically, Dr. 
Kelsey denies the reality of inferiority; “at all events until some 
one is able to put his fingers upon some physical difference which 
can be shown to have some connection with the degree of culture 
or the possibility thereof, we have no right to assume that one 
group of human beings is either superior or inferior to any other. 
Indeed some of our best anthropologists tell us that if we give a 
fixed value to all the various parts of the body and then proceed 
to measure the various races, we shall find one standing about as 
high as the rest on our social scale.” *4 Fresh scrutiny needs to 
be given to all claims of racial superiority and all charges of in- 
feriority against other races. The evidence often presented “ ap- 
pears to have been devised to sustain a condemnation already 
determined.” # 


The removal of the antipathies and the solution of the prob- 
lems just referred to is the task for all men of reason and good 
will today, and especially of Christianity. It will help us on our 
way to examine a little further the idea of race superiority in the 
hope that hereafter we shall not waste such an “ infinite amount 
of time ” over it. 


There are two races whose relations to the other races invari- 
ably arise in every discussion of the idea of race superiority. 
One is the Jew. The problem of the Jewish race will appear 
later. Here it will suffice to view it in one aspect alone. Does the 
Jew feel himself a superior race? Mr. Belloc’s book, The Jews, 
will be differently judged by different readers. ‘To some it will 
seem malicious. But probably his statement of the Jewish race- 
mind is true: 


“The Jew individually feels himself superior to his non-Jewish 
contemporary and neighbour of whatever race, and particularly 
of our race; the Jew feels his nation immeasurably superior to any 
other human community, and particularly to our modern national 
communities in Kurope. . . . He reposes in the same confidence 


“ The Physical Basis of Society, p. 292. 
“Weller, Prejudice or Foreigners, p. 5. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 73 


as was felt by Disraeli when he said: ‘The Jew cannot be ab- 
sorbed ; it is not possible for a superior race to be absorbed by an 
inferior.’ But unfortunately he does not only repose on that 
foundation; he also acts upon it, and that is intolerable. 

There is one last thing to be said, which it is almost impossible to 
say without danger of giving pain and therefore of confusing the 
problem and making the solution more difficult. But it must be 
said, because, if we shirk it, the problem is confused the more. It 
is this: While it is undoubtedly true, and will always be true, that 
a Jew feels himself the superior of his hosts, it is also true that 
his hosts feel themselves immeasurably superior to the Jew. We 
can only arrive at a just and peaceable solution of our difficulties 
by remembering that the Jew, to whom we have given special and 
alien status in the Commonwealth, is all the while thinking of 
himself as our superior. But on his side the Jew must recognise, 
however unpalatable to him the recognition may be, that those 
among whom he is living and whose inferiority he takes’ for 
granted, on their side regard him as something much less than 
themselves.” 4% “It is clear that in this conflict between the Jew 
and, let us say, the European (for it is between the Jew and the 
white Occidental race that our present problem lies, though the 
same problem arises with all other races among whom the Jew 
may find himself), both parties cannot be right.” * 


Belloc suggests that a being superior to the race of man looking 
down might decide which party is right, but that failing such a 
decision our human solution must simply accept the fact that each 
party believes itself to be superior and “in the settlement they 
arrive at, admit as a factor necessarily and permanently present 
what each still secretly regards as a folly, but an incurable folly, 
in the other.” * A better solution and the only possible one is to 
eschew all ideas of superiority and to recognise different and sup- 
plementary equipment for a common life and service, after the 
example of Mayer Sulzberger, of whom a newspaper of his city 
said when he was gone: 


“Philadelphia knew him as a learned lawyer, a judge of su- 
perior qualifications in jurisprudence, and an earnest, influential 


“ Belloc, The Jews, pp. 108, 112, 116. 
“ Ibid., p. 119. 
* Ibid., p. 119. 


74 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and generous supporter of every form of philanthropy that con- 
tributed to the welfare and uplift of his race. 

“A smaller group of scholars knew him for an erudite Ori- 
entalist, whose opinion on a Hebrew or Assyrian text was received 
with authority by savants in Europe and the United States. 

“Furthermore, he stood out as a patriot, the spokesman and 
exemplar of the highest type of Americanism in his race. Few of 
his fellow-citizens in the past forty years would have suspected 
that Mayer Sulzberger was foreign born. For more than seventy 
of his four score years he was identified with Philadelphia, and, 
as a representative citizen, demonstrated the completeness of as- 
similation which leaves not even an invisible line between the ‘ one 
hundred per cent. Americanism’ of the native born and the for- 
eign born who come here in childhood.” *° 


The other race over which the issue of superiority or inferiority 
is most frequently raised or regarding which it is commonly as- 
sumed to be a closed issue is the Negro race. As the issue is 


raised by Kidd in The Control of the Tropics, it relates both to ~ 


the Latin American and the African people. Are these races to 
be set down as prescriptively inferior? We shall consider the 
problem of both these races later, but now we ask only regarding 
the Negro. Is he to be dogmatically condemned to a status of race 
inferiority? ‘Those who know the Negro race best in Africa do 
not admit it. M. Allegret cites the opinion of African adminis- 
trators,—of General Sir F. G. Guggisberg, Governor of the Gold 
Coast: 


“If we provided natives with the means of getting a really first 
rate education, would they be capable of taking their place along- 
side Europeans? JI emphatically reply: ‘ Yes, certainly.’ The 
reason of my affirmation is that many Africans have already at- 
tained to this, and that by their own efforts. . . . The day will 
come when the black race will have developed to such an extent 
that an irresistible movement will push the €lite towards the higher 
ranges of education. It will be impelled by an instinctive thirst 
for knowledge and also by a desire to share in the direction of the 
social and political life of the masses.” 


And General Mangin says, 


“6 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 21, 1923. 


= 


ee ae, ee oe Ye eee ae oS ee 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 75 


“The African is quite capable of standing on his own feet. 
The steamers and trains are manned by natives who have been 
trained with remarkable rapidity. All our telegraph stations are 
in the hands of natives. The Negro is probably as competent as 
the white man to handle the scientific instruments of civilisation. 

I do not deny that he still has to be educated. What I do 
maintain is that he has qualities of head and heart which ought not 
to be treated as negligible. He is by nature good and faithful and 
endowed with a sense of honour, and if he is really given the 
chance, he will reach a high level. There is an élite in the black 
world capable of excelling in all regions of human intelligence. 
On the other hand I do not in the least believe that, if the black 
race is raised above its present position, there is any chance of its 
entering into conflict with the white race. It will take its place in 
the human family and will develop side by side and simultaneously 
with us.” 47 


And Dr. James Stewart, who knew the African as well as any 
man, would not allow any judgment of fixed racial inferiority 
against him: 


“Even today educated Englishmen speak of him as an ‘ inferior 
animal,’ as a ‘blend of child and beast,’ or a ‘ useless and danger- 
ous brute,’ scarcely possessing human rights. To those who use 
such language I would say, how badly we use the power and the 
gifts that God has given us when we so regard the unfortunate 
African! It is well that there is gradually growing a saner and 
humaner belief, that there is a wide and possibly great future for 
the African himself, as well as for his continent. By this it is not 
meant that particular tribes or even separate races may not dis- 
appear as individual men do. Both come and go. Nor it is meant 
that the African will suddenly reach a highly civilised condition, 
and gain a position which other races have secured only after 
centuries of strenuous effort. Yet there is some peculiarity in the 
history of the African race, and some inherent vitality in it as a 
whole, that affords a basis for a future entirely different from the 
past. . . . The African race is certain to survive and increase. 
It cannot be placed amongst those races that are dying or decay- 
ing. On the contrary, it possesses a wonderful vitality. Centuries 
of subjugation, and all the suffering through which the African 


“International Rewew of Missions, April, 1923, art. “ The Present Crisis 
in Africa,” p. 165. 


76 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


has come, have not quenched that vitality, nor destroyed a certain 
buoyancy of spirits, which has acted, no doubt, as a preservative.” 


Dr. Stewart rejected the view of those who deemed the African 
“different and inferior not merely in degree but in kind to the 
white race’ and held that “as to the power of the African to take 
up or utilise what civilisation has to offer him, it may be again 
repeated there need also be no doubt.” #8 Professor Boas sees no 
fixed barrier to the full development of the Negro race with 
other races: 


“To this question anthropology can give the decided answer 
that the traits of African culture as observed in the aboriginal 
. home of the Negro are those of a healthy primitive people, with 
a considerable degree of personal initiative, with a talent for or- 
ganisation, and with imaginative power, with technical skill and 
thrift. Neither is a warlike spirit absent in the race, as proved by 
the mighty conquerors who overthrew states and founded new 
empires, and by the courage of the armies that follow the bidding 
of their leaders. There is nothing to prove that licentiousness, 
shiftless laziness, lack of initiative, are fundamental characteristics 
of the race. Everything points out that these qualities are the 
result of social conditions, rather than of hereditary traits.” 


Professor Boas finds that “no proof of the inferiority of the 
Negro type could be given except that it seemed quite possible that 
perhaps the race would not produce quite so many men of the 
highest genius as other races; while there was nothing at all that 
could be interpreted as suggesting any material difference in the 
mental capacity of the bulk of the Negro population as compared 
with the bulk of the white population.” *° 

Let one of their own members, as capable as any member of any 
race of stating the cause of racial justice, set forth the case against 
the notion of Negro racial inferiority : 


“It has often been assumed that the Negro is physically in- 


* Stewart, Dawn in the Dark Continent, pp. 357, 364, 369. 
® The Mind of Primitive Man. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY fA 


ferior to other races and markedly distinguishable from them; 
modern science gives no authority for such an assumption. The 
supposed inferiority cannot rest on colour, for that is ‘ due to the 
combined influences of a great number of factors of environment 
working through physical processes,’ and, ‘however marked the 
contrasts may be, there is no corresponding difference in anatom- 
ical structure discoverable.’ So, too, difference in texture of hair 
is a matter of degree, not kind, and is caused by heat, moisture, 
exposure, and the like. 

“The bony skeleton presents no distinctly racial lines of vari- 
ation. Prognathism ‘presents too many individual varieties to 
be taken as a distinctive character of race.’ Difference in phys- 
ical measurements does not show the Negro to be a more primi- 
tive evolutionary form. Comparative ethnology today affords ‘no 
support to the view which sees in the so-called lower races of 
mankind a transition stage from beast to man.’ 

“Much has been made of the supposed smaller brain of the 
Negro race; but this is as yet an unproved assumption, based on 
the uncritical measurement of less than a thousand Negro brains 
as compared with eleven thousand or more European brains. 
Even if future measurement prove the average Negro brain 
lighter, the vast majority of Negro brain weights fall within the 
same limits as the whites; and finally, ‘ neither size nor weight of 
the brain seems to be of importance’ as an index of mental ca- 
pacity. We may, therefore, say with Ratzel, ‘There is only one 
species of man. ‘The variations are numerous, but do not go deep.’ 

“To this we may add the word of the Secretary of the First 
Races Congress: ‘ We are, then, under the necessity of concluding 
that an impartial investigator would be inclined to look upon the 
various important peoples of the world as to all intents and pur- 
poses essentially equal in intellect, enterprise, morality, and 
physique.’ 

pelyet.it therefore be said, once for all, that racial inferiority is 
not the cause of anti-Negro prejudice. Boas, the anthropologist, 
says: ‘An unbiased estimate of the anthropological evidence so 
far brought forward does not permit us to countenance the belief 
in a racial inferiority which would unfit an individual of the 
Negro race to take his part in modern civilisation. We do not 
know of any demand made on the human body or mind in modern 
life that anatomical or ethnological evidence would prove to be 
beyond the powers of the Negro.’ 

“We have every reason to suppose that all races are capable, 
under proper guidance, of being fitted into the complex scheme of 
our modern civilisation, and the policy of artificially excluding 


78 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


them from its benefits is as unjustifiable scientifically as it is eth- 
nically abhorrent.” 5° 
There are many errors which lie back of our ideas of race 


superiority. 

1. One is to assume the validity and supremacy of our own 
standards and to condemn to inferiority all non-conformity with 
those standards. As Finot says: 


“The science of inequality is emphatically a science of white 
people. It is they who have invented it and set it going, who have 
maintained, cherished, and propagated it, thanks to their obser- 
vations and their deductions. Deeming themselves greater than 
men of other colours, they have elevated into superior qualities 
all the traits which are peculiar to themselves, commencing with 
the whiteness of the skin and the pliancy of the hair. But 
nothing proves that these vaunted traits are traits of real 
superiority. 

“““Tf the Chinese and the Egyptians had judged our ancestors 
as we too often judge foreign races,’ says Quatrefages, ‘they 
would have found in them many traits of inferiority such as this 
white skin in which we take so much pride, and which they might 
have regarded as showing an irremediable etiolation.’ This is 
what dogmatic anthropologists seem at all times to have forgot- 
ten. Human varieties have not been studied like those of animals 
and plants, that is to say, without conventional prejudices as to 
their respective values and as to those which are superior and 
inferior. Facts have often yielded to sentiments. We have been 
persuaded, with the help of our feelings, to accept our own prefer- 
ences rather than impartial observations, and our own prejudices 
rather than scientific laws. 

“In pursuing this course the elementary commandments of ex- 
perimental science are transgressed. ‘The majority of the anthro- 
pologists, faithful in this respect to the scholastic teachings, have 
begun by assuming the inequality of human beings as an axiom. 
On this preliminary basis they have built an imposing edifice, but 
really one of fictitious solidity.” >? 


° Du Bois, The Negro, pp. 104 f., 139 f.; see also The World Tomorrow, 
March, 1922, Art. by H. A. Miller, “ The Myth of Racial Inferiority”: “If 
both the culturally superior and inferior races will accept the fact that in- 
herent racial inferiority is a myth, the world may be saved some of the 
painful experiences it has suffered as other myths of privilege and prestige 
have been shattered.” 

3 Race Prejudice, p. 310. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 79 


We regard with favour certain physical characteristics, white 
skin, fair hair, blue eyes, a certain type of features, our own 
odours. Another race will naturally have entirely different tastes. 
It is a matter not of superiority or inferiority but of variety. 
“Some men say that coloured people are ‘ugly.’ They should be 
reminded that beauty is very relative, and that our own idea of 
beauty is subject to changes of fashion. We know, too, that 
artists so refined as the Japanese find our large eyes and our high 
noses horrid.” °? In moral qualities we exalt energy, prompti- 
tude, exactness, veracity, readiness for progress, etc. These are 
good qualities, but in the first place are we sure that we individ- 
ually possess them in sufficient measure to be entitled to racial 
self-satisfaction, and in the second place how shall we weigh them 
against qualities of patience, long-suffering, considerateness, con- 
tentment, possessed by other races in a measure beyond us? If 
we were to judge each race by its possession of the qualities ex- 
alted by Jesus, especially in the Beatitudes, which races would 
rank highest? 

Having in mind the error of reading our prejudices into our 
racial judgments we should do well to recollect the words of the 
Secretary of the Universal Races Congress in 1911, “ We are 
under the necessity of concluding that an impartial investigator 
would be inclined to look upon the various important peoples of 
the world as, to all intents and purposes, essentially equals in in- 
tellect, enterprise, morality and physique. . . . We ought to 
combat the irreconcilable contentions prevalent among all the 
more important races of mankind that their customs, their 
civilisations, and their race are superior to those of other races. 
In explanation of existing differences we would refer to spe- 
cial needs arising from peculiar geographical and economic 
conditions, and to related divergences in national history; and, 
in explanation of the attitude assumed, we would refer to 
intimacy with one’s own customs leading psychologically to a 
love of them and unfamiliarity with others’ customs tend- 
ing to lead psychologically to dislike and contempt of these 


* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 14. 


80 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


latter;7'99)7 No! one,’,"says: Sir Charles Eliot, 3) possessesmne 
necessary impartiality and cosmopolitan outlook to be able to 
decide whether the Asiatic or the European character is, as a 
whole, the better.” °* The problem of race prejudice is not so 
much a fundamental biological problem as it is a social prob- 
lem of our own manufacture which grows out of our accep- 
tance of our own preferences as absolute by giving them a name, 
and chiefly under the cultivating manipulation of scholars and 
teachers and political leaders. Race prejudice in the mass of com- 
mon people is the product of accumulated social education. As 
Professor Royce says: 


“Our so-called race problems are merely problems caused by 
our antipathies. Now the mental antipathies of men are very ele- 
mental, wide-spread and momentous mental phenomena. But 
they are also in their fundamental nature extremely capricious, 
and extremely suggestible mental phenomena. Let the individual 
man alone, and he will feel antipathies for certain other human 
beings very much as any young child does—namely, quite ca- 
priciously—just as he will also feel all kinds of capricious likings 
for people. But train a man first to give names to his antipathies, 
and then to regard the antipathies thus learned as sacred merely 
because they have a name, and then you get the phenomena of 
racial hatred, or class hatred, and so on indefinitely. Such trained 
hatreds are peculiarly pathetic and peculiarly deceitful, because 
they combine in such a subtle way the elemental vehemence of 
the hatred that a child may feel for a stranger, or a cat, or a dog, 
with the appearance of dignity and sobriety and sense of duty 
which a name gives.” °° 


There is a further aspect of injustice in our condemning other 
races because they do not conform to our standard. It is revealed 
in our condemnation of these very races when they do conform to 
our standard and do the same things that we do. We condemn 
Japan and Turkey, for example, for attempting to vernacularise 
all schools, and yet twenty-one American states passed laws de- 
signed to prevent the teaching of foreign languages to pupils 


°° Universal Races Congress, 1911, pp. 35, 38. 
*“ Letters from the Far East, p. 28. 
Royce, Race Prejudice and Other American Questions, p. 47. 


mou 
% 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 81 


below the eighth grade in public, private and parochial schools, 
which were enforced until declared unconstitutional by the Su- 
preme Court. And Oregon passed laws designed apparently to 
force all children into the public schools. We protested against 
the possibility of such action on the part of Japan in Korea. We 
condemn Latin American countries for requiring examination in 
Spanish or Portuguese on the part of American doctors desiring 
to practise medicine, but in the Philippine Islands all business ac- 
counts are required to be kept in English, Spanish, or one of the 
dialects of the Philippine Islands. The Chinese merchants have 
protested in vain. Would American merchants submit to a cor- 
responding law in China? In many ways we allow to ourselves 
what we condemn in others. But if we standardise our own ways 
we must be prepared to take all the consequences. If we do not 
allow Japanese to hold land in America, we must not object if 
they forbid our holding land in Japan. If we forbid brown and 
yellow people to become Americans, we cannot object if brown 
and yellow people deal likewise with us. 

2. A second error is the assumption that backwardness and in- 
feriority are synonymous. ‘“ Backward,” says Ratzel, “does not 
necessarily mean inferior.” The conception of child races is a 
familiar conception. We have worked with it as a pretext in 
politics in relation to “ subject peoples’ and to the questions in- 
volved,—“ of responsibility to weaker races, of the relations of 
the governing power to great systems of native jurisprudence and 
religion, which take us back to the very childhood of the world, 
and in which the first principle of successful policy is that we are 
dealing, as it were, with children.” °® But we have not accepted 
this conception in its full application to race relationships. It is 
time that we should do so. A so-called inferior race is simply a 
race which has not yet enjoyed the education and felt the in- 
fluences which would lift it to the level of its potential happi- 
ness and serviceableness. And in this sense all races are still 
inferior.®? 


2 * Kidd, The Control of the Tropics, p. 33 f. 
™ Our western civilisation is perhaps not absolutely the glorious thing 
we ie to imagine it.” Seeley, The Expansion of England, p. 354. 


82 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


3. A third error is the idea that the apparent inferiority of a 
race is due to its race-character and destiny and not, as is the fact, 
to its lack of motive and opportunity and inspiration, although 
this lack is an effect as well as a cause of race-character. And it is 
of equal importance that the race which needs these should receive 
them and that the race which has them to give should impart them. 
In dealing with the question of African character and the problem 
of labour in South Africa the South African Native Races Com- 
mittee declared in its report in 1908: 


“Tt is often said that the native is indolent and must be taught 
the ‘dignity of labour.’ Gradually, however, it is being recog- 
nised that the true cause of the difficulty is to be found, not in any 
inherent defect in the character of the natives, but in the absence 
of a sufficient motive to engage in continuous work. Uneducated 
natives can satisfy their primitive needs with little exertion; and 
if they are content with their present earnings, the difficulty of 
obtaining labour is not likely to disappear. But the progress of 
education tends inevitably to raise the standard of living, and by 
creating fresh needs supplies a powerful incentive to labour. And 
from the point of view of the white colonists.there are other rea- 
sons of still greater weight for educating the natives. Nothing 
could be more unworthy, or in the long run more disastrous, than 
that the whites in South Africa should regard the natives as a 
mere ‘labour asset.’ If this view prevailed—and it is to be feared 
that it still has some advocates—it would inevitably result in the 
demoralisation of the white communities. ‘We have to bear in 
mind,’ writes Sir Marshal Clarke, ‘that where two races on dif- 
ferent planes of civilisation come into such close contact as do the 
whites and blacks in South Africa, they act and react on each 
other, and where the higher race neglects its duty to the lower it 
will itself suffer.’ Neglect of this duty has many serious conse- 
quences, but perhaps none more disastrous than its effects on the 
white children. . . . As Mr. Barnett justly says, ‘the mental 
and moral development of the white children is inextricably in- 
volved in that of the black.’ ” °° 


A superior race that does not seek to share its superiority with 
an inferior will inevitably be dragged down to share the lower 
race’s inferiority. 


The South African Natives, p. 186 f. 


{ 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 83 


» 4, A more radical error is the idea of the fixedness of race char- 


acter, of the fiat of unalterable race status.°® On the other hand 
the truth is that there is no static, inherent, abiding status of race 
superiority or inferiority. No race is assured of continued as- 
cendency. The alarmist school realises this. Indeed this is the 
cry of alarm it is sounding abroad. Having cherished the idea of 
white ascendency it now sees that ascendency threatened, and un- 
convinced of the right solution of the race problem, it is appealing 
for the segregation and racial withdrawal and for the eugenic 
race-breeding of the white peoples in the interest of the preserva- 
tion of their superiority of race character. This truth of race- 
growth and change is indeed a warning to all race-vanity and 
privilege, but it is also the hope of all races, superior or inferior. 
None of them is doomed to a fixed status. A true ethnological 
view is a confirmation of the promises of Christianity to the races 
and to the men who comprise them. Mr. Spiller maintains, 


“The physical and mental characteristics observable in a par- 
ticular race are not (1) permanent, (2) modifiable only through 
ages of environmental pressure ; but (3) marked changes in popu- 
lar education, in public sentiment, and in environment generally, 
may, apart from intermarriage, materially transform physical and 
especially mental characteristics in a generation or two. The 
status of a race at any particular moment of time offers no index 
to its innate or inherited capacities. It is of great importance in 
this respect to recognise that civilisations are meteoric in nature, 
bursting out of obscurity only to plunge back into it. ; 

“ Differences in economic, hygienic, moral, and educational 
standards play a vital part in estranging races which come in con- 
tact with each other. ‘These differences, like social differences 
generally, are in substance almost certainly due to passing social 
conditions and not to innate racial characteristics, and the aim 
should be, as in social differences, to remove these rather than to 
accentuate them by regarding them as fixed. 

“The deepest cause of race misunderstandings is perhaps the 
tacit assumption that the present characteristics of a race are the 
expression of fixed and permanent racial characteristics. If so, 
anthropologists, sociologists, and scientific thinkers as a class, 
could powerfully assist the movement for a juster appreciation of 


° Townsend’s Asia and Europe sets forth this view persuasively. 


84 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


races by persistently pointing out in their lectures and in their 
works the fundamental fallacy involved in taking a static instead 
of a dynamic, a momentary instead of a historic, a local instead 
of a general, point of view of race characteristics. And such 
dynamic teaching could be conveniently introduced into schools, 
more especially in the geography and history lessons; also into 
colleges for the training of teachers, diplomats, colonial adminis- 
trators, and missionaries. 

“The belief in racial superiority is largely due, as is suggested 
above, to unenlightened psychological repulsion and underestima- 
tion of the dynamic or environmental factors; there is no fair 
proof of some races being substantially superior to others in in- 


born capacity, and hence our moral standard need never be 
modified.” © 


The Chinese race which is often cited as the outstanding proof 
that a race may become static and fixed is a clear and convincing 
disproof of such a theory. In the museum in the old Forbidden 
Palace in Peking are gathered such remnants of Chinese art as 
the “superior ” races have not stolen. They are arranged chrono- 
logically and they show that a race is not controlled by forces 
which move it gradually upward or downward. On the other hand, 
great artistic impulses which rose to magnificent expression in one 
dynasty die down and disappear only to break forth again with 
still richer power here or there centuries afterwards. ‘These resur- 
rections and increments of power, with results, in some forms, 
such as the “ Nordic” race has never produced, are due to one or 
the other of two causes, both of which disprove the theory of 
racial immobility. Either they are due to the dying down and 
then the awakening again of latent racial capacity or they come 
from the impulse of some race amalgamation. In Outlines of 
Chinese Art, Dr. Ferguson lays the stress upon the distinctiveness 
of Chinese art effort and its independence of all outside influence. 
He says: 


“Tt has been the genius of the Chinese to preserve unchanged 
the same art spirit from generation to generation, even though 


° Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper by G. Spiller on “The Problem 
of Race Equality,” p. 34. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 85 


early examples might perish. . . . It is safe to say that the 
same art motives which flourished in the Shan and Chow dy- 
nasties stirred the hearts of artists in the Ming and Manchu 


dynasties. . . . It is interesting to note that art motives became 
stabilised before China began to have much intercourse with out- 
side nations. . . . We know that by this time (5th century 


B. C.) there had been developments of artistic creation in bronze. 
jade and ideographs which have continued to control the minds of 
artists down to the present time.” 


In contrast with this point of view, in Epochs of Chinese and 
Japanese Art, Fenollosa writes: “ Medieval art in Japan and 
China is as much involved with Buddhism as is medieval Euro- 
pean art with Christianity.” He adds: “The writer wishes to 
break down the old fallacy of regarding Chinese civilisation as 
standing for thousands of years at a dead level by openly exhibit- 
ing the special environing culture and special structural beauties 
which render the art of each period unique.” Further on, he 
writes: “ At creative periods all forms of art will be found to 
interact,” and he indicates in scheme his theory of the source of 
outside influences upon Chinese art. 

It is interesting to note the similarity and parallelism between 
the development of literature in China and in Europe. The 
“Golden Age” of literature in China in the Chou dynasty cor- 
responds somewhat in time to the Golden Age of the great Greek 
thinkers and writers; again there is a period of stagnation in 
China which resembles closely the Dark Ages in Europe; the 
Renaissance in the Sun Dynasty in China occurred just a short 
time before the Renaissance in Europe. A graph marking the 
rise and fall of the spirit and volume of literary production in 
China would correspond very closely to one which would indicate 
similar fluctuations in Europe, but the situation in China is a much 
more valid argument against the race determinists than that in 
Europe, because there has been on the whole a fairly homogeneous 
race development in China, without all the intermixture and blend- 
ing of racial stock which is so apparent in Europe. The literary 
movement now in progress in China is evidence of vitality which 
as yet shows no sign of decay. Of course, one does not mean to 


86 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


say thét there were not variations in the racial stream in China 
due to the influx of the Mongols and the Manchus, but the racial 
stock as a whole is fairly homogeneous, being chiefly the Sinitic 
race, to which in popular usage the rather loose term of Mon- 
golian is generally applied. 

I presented this question, of the proof by the Chinese race of 
the truth of racial vitality and expansion, to Prof. F. W. Wil- 
liams, of Yale University, and he has stated his view of the case 
in the following suggestive letter : 


“The question you put interests me greatly; it quite accords 
with an idea I have long cherished and applied to the histories of 
all culture groups. It is not only in China that you will find 
periods of convulsion, usually involving some foreign incursions, 
followed by surprising departures in intellectual achievement. 
Egypt in the IV-VI Dynasties, after the union of Upper and 
Lower Egypt, and again after the Hyksos; Babylonia under the 
First Dynasty ; Persia under the Achamenids; India after several 
Tartar conquests and notably that of the Moguls, and plenty other 
instances seem to me to point to a law of race improvement that 
brings new vitality to an old nation following penetration or con- 
quest by outsiders. All the great moments of Chinese history 
appear subsequent to long struggles with the Tartars and to be 
connected with a freshening of the population after the barbarians 
are incorporated with the older stock. The Chou, the Han, the 
Sui-T’ang, the Mongol, the Manchu Dynasties all involve a renas- 
cence after conflict with Tartars who become amalgamated with 
the Chinese and invigourate a decadent people. The greatness of 
the Sung period seems to be due to causes less obvious, but in this 
case I incline to the theory that its intellectual and artistic superior- 
ity might have been due to constant influxes of Toba Tartars pre- 
ceding the Mongol advance. Conversely the law seems to involve 
decadence after the new vigour becomes thin. It is evident not 
only in art and letters but in decentralising political tendencies 
which destroy schools and cooperation everywhere and let loose 
reactionary elements. A country cannot remain at its best unless 
reinvigorated from time to time by foreign blood. China, which 
has ever been supercilious or jealous of outsiders, has been better 
able than Europe as a whole to defend its borders and has had 
relatively little voluntary immigration; having dammed the nat- 
ural inflow it has suffered repeated inundations at intervals, but 
these have never become deluges and it has thus far managed to 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 87 


recover its losses and eventually improve its status by each mix-up. 
Unlike India, it has not been handicapped by deeply rooted reli- 
gious prejudices or by physical barriers which kept its sections in 
great pockets ; being fairly homogenous it has always recovered. 

“As to decadence, no nation in history appears at its best in art 
or learning for many generations at a time. When we recall the 
fact that Greece was great for only two centuries and Rome for 
never more than two centuries at a time, with spasms of degener- 
acy between, China’s record does not appear exceptional. One finds 
sudden culmination followed by imitation and loss of originality 
everywhere in recorded history. The details of this process are in- 
teresting and would be worth following, e. g., why does architec- 
ture always precede sculpture and painting in a revival of the arts 
—to give place usually to poetry and criticism and philosophy ? 
But this inquiry leads us away from our main thesis. I believe one 
will discover in any great museum in the world evidence that (as 
you put it) ‘race capacity and achievement does not necessarily 
move along a slow and orderly gradient, either down or up, but is 
liable to great convulsions, to sudden collapses or to equally sud- 
den resurrection.’ 

“One corollary suggests itself to me:—We are done, perhaps 
forever, with masses of nomadic barbarians in the world; is the 
new age of man to be fructified and quickened by rivulets of im- 
migrants carried constantly over seas instead of occasional floods 
over lands? Of course the New World has thus far been peopled 
in this way, and equally, of course, the Old World has no room 
for people who do not fight their way in. Will our policy of stop- 
ping the rivulets here bring about presently a flood of civilised 
instead of barbarous invaders such as China has known for 
bedecl de ihe 


*t Professor Thomas F. Carter, of the Department of Chinese in Colum- 
bia University, writes in comment on these references to Chinese history: 
“The whole course of Chinese History seems to have gone up and down 
like sea waves or perhaps more like the seasons of the year. There was the 
time of poetry and vigourous thinking of the Chou Dynasty that was dis- 
tinctly a springtime of the race; there was the rather sultry but ripe schol- 
arship of the Han Dynasty falling into general decay toward the end of the 
Han period; there was the long winter of the dark ages corresponding 
roughly to the Dark Ages of Europe; there was again a springtime of lyric 
poetry and vigourous art in the T’ang Dynasty, followed again by a period 
of ripe scholarship during the Sung period, and again by a period of 
decline under the Mongols; and finally there has been a long winter under 
the Mings and Manchus. Whether we see signs of approaching spring, 
either in the present day Christian movement or in the intellectual renais- 
sance, remains to be seen. 

“Professor Williams’s Theory of the origin in race amalgamation of each 


88 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


5. It is an error also to identify races and civilisations and to 
condemn as inferior the peoples of inferior or backward culture. 
In the first place, our western civilisation is itself none too supe- 
rior. To the extent that it embodies the truth which God has 
written upon nature and conforms to the mind of Christ it is true 
civilisation. But in neither of these respects has it advanced far 
enough, and it is seamed with evils which are now so patent to the 
world that in condemning them there is danger that we may lose 
the essential values to which they are clinging. In the second 
place, so far as it is good it is not ours. It is or is meant to be all 
men’s universal possession. As Spiller said at the Universal 
Races Congress: 


“So far at least as intellectual or moral aptitudes are concerned, 
we ought to speak of civilisations where we now speak of races; 
the stage or form of the civilisation of a people has no connection 


of the periods of special vigour is very interesting and seems to be well 
founded. It would seem to me, however, that the theory could be carried 
further and that it might be shown that each of the great barbarian in- 
trusions into China brought first disorganisation and a period of stagnation 
before the slow process of race amalgamation succeeded in bringing 
new vigour. 

“The greatest resurrection of Chinese culture, the one that brought new 
vigour to all lines of Chinese endeavour, was the rather sudden revival 
under the T’angs after the period of the Dark Ages. It would seem that 
here we have something more than race amalgamation. It was new religion 
injected into the rather formal body of Chinese thought that combined with 
race amalgamation to bring about the new birth. It was a new culture, a 
Buddhist culture, a culture in which China’s ancient formalism was com- 
bined with a vigourous culture from outside through religion that brought 
in the T’ang revival. The T’ang culture is almost as different from that 
which existed before the Dark Ages as the reviving culture of Medizval 
Europe was different from that of Greece and Rome. And the difference, 
like that in Europe, was one caused by religion. It seems to me that we 
have here the reconciliation of the two theories of Chinese art which you 
quote; the theory of Ferguson and that of Fenollosa. Chinese Civilisation 
of T’ang times and especially Chinese art had its foundation in the art of 
the earlier period, but it was transformed and transfused by Buddhism 
almost as much as that of the Middle Ages in Europe was transformed by 
Christianity. I say ‘almost’ because the Dark Ages in China lasted a 
shorter time than in Europe and Buddhism made a less complete triumph, 
so that the classical influence was stronger and the influence of the new 
religion not as strong as in Europe, but the situation was analogous. A 
study of this period is instructive as iilustrating how a rebirth of Chinese 
culture in the past has been directly due to the permeating influence of a 
religion from outside.” Letter, T. F. Carter, Nov. 14, 1923. 


ee ee 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 89 


with its special inborn physical characteristics; and even its phys- 
ical characteristics are to no small extent the direct result of the 
environment, physical and social, under which it is living at the 
moment. To aid in clearing up the conceptions of race and civil- 
isation, it would be of great value to define these. 

“Fach race might with advantage study the customs and civil- 
isations of other races, even those it thinks the lowliest ones, for 
the definite purpose of improving its own customs and civilisation. 
Unostentatious conduct generally and respect for the customs of 
other races, provided these are not morally objectionable, should 
be recommended to all who come in passing or permanent contact 
with members of other races.”’ © 


And Ratzel declares: 


“The gap which differences of civilisation create between two 
groups of human beings is in truth quite independent, whether in 
its depth or in its breadth, of the differences in their mental en- 
dowments. We need only observe what a mass of accidents has 
operated in all that determines the height of the stage of civilisa- 
tion reached by a people, or in the total sum of their civilisation, 
to guard ourselves with the utmost care from drawing hasty con- 
clusions as to their equipment either in body, intellect, or soul. 
Highly-gifted races can be poorly equipped with all that makes 
for civilisation, and so may produce the impression of holding a 
low position among mankind. . . . Race as such has nothing to 
do with the possession of civilisation. It would be silly to deny 
that in our own times the highest civilisation has been in the hands 
of the Caucasian, or white, races; but, on the other hand, it is an 
equally important fact that for thousands of years in all civilising 
movements there has been a dominant tendency to raise all races 
to the level of their burdens and duties, and therewith to make 
real earnest of the great conception of humanity—a conception 
which has been proclaimed as a specially distinguishing attribute 
of the modern world, but of which many still do not believe in the 
realisation. But let us only look outside the border of the brief 
and narrow course of events which we arrogantly call the history 
of the world, and we shall have to recognise that members of every 
race have borne their part in the history which lies beyond.” ® 


We need to remember our racial debt. It is too often assumed 


” Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 39. 
* Ratzel, The History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 20. 


90 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


that our claimed racial superiority is our racial achievement. It. 


isnot so. “Jama part of all that I have met” is more true of a 
race even than of a person. All generations and the races which 
preceded us and races which surround us helped to make. and 
endow us. To any race conscious of its privilege, St. Paul puts 
his ancient question, “ What hast thou that thou didst not re- 
ceive?” “ Our own civilisation,” says General Mangin, who com- 
manded the French African troops on the western front in the 
World War, “has its sources in Asia, which is yellow; in India 
which is bronzed ; and in Egypt which is black. Greece and Rome 
are comparatively late-comers. We owe much to the Arabs. Our 
alphabets come from Asia, and our figures from Arabia, and long 
before Europe was settled there existed great civilisations. We, 
white men, are not the first, and we may not be the last, represent- 
atives of civilisation... It is necessary to cultivate the world sense 
and to think in less limited periods of time.” ®* “ Our own civilisa- 
tion,” adds Leroy Beaulieu, “is not the monopoly of one race, but 
was constructed by the concurrence of many people. . . . The 
whole history of our civilisation, therefore, protests against its hav- 
ing ever been at any time monopolised by the Aryan branch of the 
white race. . . . The unity of race which has hitherto been imag- 
ined to exist among all Western peoples is now proved to be chi- 
merical. . . . It seems impossible with the present facts to sustain a 
priort that one race cannot assimilate the civilisation of another.” © 

6. We err also in our sweeping race judgments when we fasten 
all individuals of a race within a racial inheritance as though the 
generalised character which we give to the race holds each mem- 
ber of the race in its determinism. ‘Thank God, it does nothing of 
the kind. Men of the so-called inferior races, not in exceptional 
cases but by the thousand, can be cited who transcend in character, 
culture, power, influence, usefulness and humanity members of 


* London Observer, quoted in The Crisis, March, 1922. See Racial Rela- 
tions and the Christian Ideal, pe 8. 

* Beaulieu, The Awakening of the East, p. 172; See Anesaki, The Re- 
ligious and Social Problems of the Orient, Chap. III; Buckle, History of 
Civilisation in England, Vol. I, Chap. II, on “Influence Exercised by 
Physical Laws over the Organisation of Society and over the Character 
of Individuals.” 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 91 


the so-called superior races. Furthermore, as Professor H. A. 
Miller says: “Instead of drawing a line between races, psycho- 
logical comparison demonstrates by the overlapping, similarity 
instead of difference. Divergences between the extremes of ‘ su- 
perior’ and ‘inferior’ groups are almost exactly equal. It is 
manifestly absurd for the great mass of a race whom the lists 
classify as being of ‘C’ grade, to claim, because there are one or 
two per cent. more of the ‘A’ grade in this race, that therefore 
these ‘C’s’ have a God-given right to rule the other race which 
fas,also;; A’s* andy B’s’)in, it.’’,°° 

A few months ago the African Chief Khama finished his long 
career. He was over ninety years of age and he could remember 
meeting Livingstone on one of his earliest missionary journeys. 
He was elected as chief of the Bamangwato, one of the Bantu 
tribes of South Africa, in 1872, and had been their chief for fifty 
years. Mr. Harris, in his biography of Khama, writes: “ Has 
there been in history a more dramatic figure than this son of a 
sorcerer, standing up in the kraal of his tribe, and bravely break- 
ing with the heathen sanctions and standards of his race? 
No Mendelism can explain how it is that this one man should have 
stood out against the inviolate traditions of the centuries and 
broken the tides of evil that for ages swept over his land. To that 
problem Khama himself would give but one answer—‘it is the 
transforming power of the Grace of God.” Referring to the 
widespread influence exerted by this Christian community, Mr. 
Harris says: “ From that church, where the chief leads his people 
to prayer, and where true Christian characters have been formed, 
there spreads out into the wastes a stream of influence that makes 
for healing and light. For many years the Bamangwato have sus- 
tained their own mission work at Lake Mgami and numerous little 
stations in other lonely outposts.” Khama’s efforts to protect his 
people from the destructive influences of alcohol imported by 
European traders brought him into frequent collision with them. 
After his election as chief he summoned all the whites and in- 
formed them that intoxicating drinks were no longer to be sold to 


* The World Tomorrow, March, 1922, p. 68. 


92 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


his people. The whites might import brandy for their own use 
but they might not sell it to Africans. To this they professed to 
agree. A few days later he found several of the whites “ roaring 
drunk.” After waiting until they were sober he summoned them 
to his court. He asked no questions but simply stated the facts as 
he had seen them. ‘“ You think,” said he, “ you can despise my 
laws because I am a black man. Well, I am black, but I am chief 
of my own country. When you white men rule the country, then 
you may do as you like. At present I rule, and I shall maintain 
the laws you insult and despise.” ‘Then he went on, naming the 
offenders one by one, “Take everything you have, strip the iron 
off the roofs, gather all your possessions, and go! More, if there 
is any other white man here who does not like my laws, let him go, 
too. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I am trying to lead 
my people according to the Word of God, which we have received 
from you white people, and you show us an example of wicked- 
ness. You know that some of my brothers have learned to like 
the drink, and you tempt them with it. I make an end of it today. 
Go! Take your cattle, leave my town, and never come back.” 

Utter silence followed this speech. The men were smitten with 
shame and bewilderment. This decree meant blank ruin to many 
who were thus expelled, and some of them followed Khama to his 
house to plead for pity. “ Pity!” said he, “ when I had pity, and 
warned you, you despised me. Now I have pity for my. own 
people.” One pleaded that he had grown up in the country, and 
that Khama and he were old friends. “ What!” said Khama, “you 
dare to speak, you who made me a promise, and then brought casks 
of drink to the river and smuggled them into the country? You 
call yourself my friend! You are my worst enemy!” So the 
canteen keepers and brandy smugglers had to load up their wagons 
and trek, and the Great Thirst Land “ went dry.” ® 

It was Khama who appealed to the British Government against 
the liquor deluge in Africa and who, when in England, met Queen 
Victoria with a dignity and capacity equal to her own. Any theory 

” Adapted from The East and the West, Jan., 1923, review of Khama, 


the Great African Chief, by J. C. Harris; The Missionary Review oe the 
World, May, 1923, Art. ‘“‘Khama, a Christian Chief of Africa.” 


se 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 93 


of race judgments which sets down Khama as a member of an in- 
ferior human caste to be judged by an arbitrary group judgment 
rather than by the truth is obviously foolish and false. It is not 
so much a matter of race and race as of man and man. 


“T have always been made sad,” said Booker Washington, 
“when I have heard members of any race claiming rights and 
privileges, or certain badges of distinction, on the ground simply 
that they were members of this or that race, regardless of their 
own individual worth or attainments. JI have been made to feel 
sad for such persons because I am conscious of the fact that mere 
connection with what is known as a superior race will not perma- 
nently carry an individual forward unless he has individual worth, 
and mere connection with what is regarded as an inferior race 
will not finally hold an individual back if he possess intrinsic, 
individual merit. Every persecuted individual and race should 
get much consolation out of the great human law, which is uni- 
versal and eternal, that merit, no matter under what skin found, 
is, in the long run, recognised and rewarded. This I have said 
here, not to call attention to myself as an individual, but to the 
race to which I am proud to belong.” ®8 


And fair and just men of all races are coming to realise this, 
even though more slowly than Booker Washington’s hopeful 
words imply. And none are leading in this righteous and creative 
way of treating the race problems more wisely and efficiently than 
the best white men and women in the South. “The Negro is a 
human being,” said Prof. Josiah Morse, of the University of 
South Carolina, at the Southern Sociological Congress in At- 
lanta in 1913, 


“and modern anthropology has shown that the differences 
among human beings—anatomical, physiological, and mental-— 
are insignificant as compared with their fundamental resem- 
blances and identities. We shall certainly not need a Negro 
science of medicine. The things that breed disease among the 
whites—poverty, ignorance, overcrowding, immorality, alcohol- 
ism, unsanitary premises, neglect and malnutrition of children. 
etc.—will breed disease with equal facility among the Negroes. 
And we may rest assured that the measures and remedies that 


* Up from Slavery, p. 40 £. 


94 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


prevent and cure diseases among the whites will do the same for 
the blacks. 

“ And what is true of the body in this respect is also true of the 
mind. The conditions that make for morality or immorality, for 
happiness or unhappiness, for love and hate, sympathy and an- 
tipathy, kindness and cruelty, etc., among the whites accomplish 
the same results for the blacks. We shall not need a separate 
psychology for the Negroes, nor a separate logic, ethics, sociology, 
economics; not even a separate religion or art. The laws and 
facts of human nature discovered by these various sciences are 
equally true of the coloured races of man as of the white. Science 
knows no essential distinctions, because nature knows none. And 
that is why, in my opinion, our problem is not nearly so difficult 
as it might be, or as it appears to some. We know the essential 
facts and conditions; we know that everything human, from 
culture to disease, is intercommunicable among the races of men; 
we know that the foundation stones upon which this universe rests 
are righteousness and justice, and honesty, and love; we know 
that injustice cannot be done with impunity to the doer, that it 
must be paid for with compound interest and at an exorbitant 
rate; we know that no problem can be permanently solved unless 
it be solved fairly and in a generous spirit; we know that the 
Negro is here to stay, and that our welfare and happiness and 
health and progress are inextricably interwoven with his—then let 
us teach these truths honestly and fearlessly. . . . In this way, 
I believe, we shall most speedily and effectively rid our social 
system of the poisons of prejudice which are now causing so much 
suffering and loss to both races; and in this way we shall lay the 
foundation, at least, for the satisfactory solution of the problem 
in the future.” °° 


This examination of the idea of race superiority has not been 
made under a presupposition of theoretical race equality of any 
kind, nor has it touched the nature, characteristics and limitations 
of the idea of racial equality which has emerged. Questions of 
political, economic or social equality are not as yet under discus- 
sion. Our review has had four things in mind: (1) the dissolu- 

- tion of the prejudice against any race, which may become its racial 
discouragement and which implies the assumption that it or its 
members are barred from any of the achievements or possessions 


° The South Mobilising for Social Service, p. 403 £. 


oe 


THE, IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 95 


of humanity; (2) the affirmation of the truth of a general equality 
in racial capacity; (3) the emergence of the duty of service as the, 
one real evidence and privilege of race superiority, and (4) the 
reassertion from a larger viewpoint of the truth of human unity. 
Let us note each of these points. 

1. Some students of the race problem see an approach toward 
its solution in the recognition by the races deemed inferior, of 
their inferiority. Mr. Stone took this view: 


“Open manifestations of race antipathy will be aggravated if 
each group feels its superiority over the other. They will be 
fewer and milder when one race accepts the position of inferiority 
outwardly or really feels the superiority of the other. In all cases 
the element of individual or racial self-assertiveness plays an im- 
portant part. The white man on the Pacific coast may insist that 
he does not feel anything like the race prejudice toward the China- 
man that he does toward the Japanese. In truth the antipathy is 
equal in either case, but the Chinaman accepts the position and 
imputation of inferiority—no matter what or how he may really 
feel beneath his passive exterior. On the other hand, the Japanese 
neither accepts the position nor plays the role of an inferior—and 
when attacked he does not run. Aside from all question of the 
relative commendable traits of the two races, it is easy to see that 
the characteristics of one group are much more likely than those 
of the other to provoke outbreaks of antipathy when brought into 
contact with the white race. . . . The simpler the relations 
‘between diverse races, the less friction there will be; the more 
complex the relations, the greater the friction. ‘The simplest rela- 
tions possible are those in which the relative status of superior 
and inferior is mutually accepted as the historical, essential, and 
matter-of-fact basis of relationship between the two. The most 
complex relation possible between any two racial groups is that of 
a theoretical equality which one race denies and the other insists 
upon. ‘The accepted relation of superior and inferior may exist 
not only without bitterness on one side or harsh feelings upon the 
other, but it may be characterised by a sentiment and affection 
wholly impossible between the same groups under conditions de- 
manding a recognition of so-called equality.” 7 


The difficulties in the way of this solution are probably insur- 


Stone, The American Race Problem, pp. 219, 223. 


96 : RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


mountable. ‘The acceptance of a status of inferiority is both good 
and bad for a man. It may be both better and worse for a race. 
Any development of a spirit of racial despair in any race would be 
a damage to the whole of humanity. India talks of the “slave 
mentality ” which has been given to it by the subjection of the last 
century. Such talk is itself tragic. It is a dreadful thing when 
either individuals or races lose confidence in their capacity, and 
the whole world suffers the cost of their loss. The acceptance of 
a destined limit to progress is the surest deterrent to progress, and 
the abandonment of the hope of progress is death to man and races 
alike. Furthermore, individuals of the race which is invited to 
accept inferiority, who are themselves on a level with the superior 
individuals of the superior race, are psychologically incapable of 
submergence in the racial menialism proposed for them, and the 
interests of the society to which they and the superior race alike 
belong will not be likely to acquiesce in the situation that would be 
produced. The idea of individual superiority surrendering to the 
doom of indiscriminate racial condemnation is impossible.” 
Moreover, the world into which we have come or are coming is 
sure to be so convinced that human solidarity is a stronger prin- 
ciple than race, while both principles are recognised as essential 
and valid, that it is certain that some other racial adjustment than 
that of exclusive race aristocracy will have to be found. Later 
we must try to find it. If we miss it, it will be because we have 
no eyes to see what is near and no capacity to discern the real 
truth, which is simply this: that human beings are human beings 


a“ Might not the point be made that an admission of inferiority i is not 
necessarily discouraging if it is felt to exist in regard to certain qualities 
only? For instance, Italians may admit that in the matter of height and 
physical strength they are, on an average, inferior to Anglo-Saxons. That 
would not discourage them. In the same way, Americans may admit that 
they are less artistic than the Japanese; Hindus that they are less musical 
than Italians; Russians that they are less logical than the French. A 
mutual recognition of specific racial or national superiorities and inferiori- 
ties, without attempts to formulate any general theory of superiority, might 
lead to greater admiration of all races towards each other, and to greater 
efforts on the part of each further to perfect itself in the qualities in which 
it already excels and to make good, in so far as that is possible, the felt 
failings or handicaps in racial or national character and abilities.’— 
Bruno LASKER. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 97 


and are to be thought of and treated as human beings. A coloured 
woman uncovers the heart of the matter in some simple sugges- 
tions which she makes to white women in a paper on “ Cooper- 
ation between White and Coloured Women”; “(1) Coloured 
women resent being called by their first names, except by intimate 
friends with whom such a privilege is an exchange. (2) Coloured 
women should be consulted about plans that include them. (3) 
There should be Christian frankness and open-mindedness in the 
approach to any problem. (4) The natural assumption that all 
white is superior and that all black is inferior must be eliminated 
before any really coOperative spirit can be fostered.” ‘ What is 
this but to ask that human beings should be treated as human be- 
ings; that we should behave toward members of other races ex- 
actly as we would wish them to behave toward us? The Golden 
Rule was not given with any racial limitations upon its application. 

It is desirable that we should try to put ourselves in the place of 
those individuals who are compelled to bear the weight of a judg- 
ment of inferiority against the race to which they belong. Sucha 
judgment is an almost killing handicap. As Max Eastman says in 
the introduction to Harlem Shadows: “The children of the sub- 
jected race never have a chance. ‘To be deprived at the very dawn 
of selfhood of a sense of possible superiority, is to be undernour- 
ished at the point of chief educative importance, and to be assailed 
in early childhood with a pervading intimation of inferiority is 
poison in the very centers of growth except for people of the very 
highest force of character; therefore, to be born into a subjected 
race is to grow up inferior, not only to the other races, but to one’s 
own potential self.”** It is one evidence of the indestructible 
capacity for superiority in inferior races that so many individuals 
in them are able to conquer this handicap and demonstrate their 
ability to meet on equal terms the best of other races. 

2. The present extent of our knowledge of ethnology leads stu- 
dents to minimise the difference in capacity between races. Pro- 
fessor John Dewey says: “ Careful study has made it doubtful 


@ The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1922, p. 487. 
® Quoted in Racial Relations and the Christian Ideal, p. 9. 


98 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


whether their (savages’) native capacities are appreciably in- 
ferior to those of civilised men. It has made it certain that 
native differences are not sufficient to account for the difference 
in culture.” 

Professor Robert FE. Park, of the University of Chicago, says: 
“The difference between a savage and a civilised man is not due 
to any fundamental differences in their brain cells, but to the con- 
nections and mutual stimulations which are established by experi- 
ence and education between those cells. In the savage those 
possibilities are not absent but latent. In the same way the differ- 
ence between the civilisation of Central Africa and that of West- 
ern Europe is due, not to the difference in native abilities of the 
individuals and the peoples who have created them, but rather to 
the form which the association and interaction between those indi- 
viduals and groups of individuals has taken.” 

Mr. H. G. Wells declares “ that in Asia the average brain is not 
one whit inferior in quality to the average European brain; that 
history shows Asiatics to be as bold, as vigourous, as generous, as 
self-sacrificing and as capable of strong collective action as Euro- 
peans,” and he adds, “that there are and must continue to be 
many more Asiatics than Europeans in the world.” “ 

Professor Franz Boas, head of the Anthropological Department 
of Columbia University, writes: 


“The differences between different types of man are, on the 
whole, small as compared to the range of variation in each 
type. . . . Weare not inclined to consider the mental organisa- 
tion of different races of man as differing in fundamental points. 
Although, therefore, the distribution of faculty among the races 
of man is far from being known, we can say this much: the av- 
erage faculty of the white race is found to the same degree in a 
large proportion of individuals of all other races, and although it 
is probable that some of these races may not produce as large a 
proportion of great men as our own race, there is no reason to 
suppose that they are unable to reach the level of civilisation repre- 
sented by the bulk of our own people.” ® 


* Quoted in Kawakami, The Real Japanese Question, p. 224. 
® Quoted by D. J. Fleming, International Review of Missions, Jan., 1923, 
Art. on “ Relative Racial Capacity,” p. 116. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 99 


The facts as we now know them, however, do not involve more 
than the idea of a general equality of racial capacity, and the doc- 
trine of human solidarity implies no more.’® The average ability 
of some races is below that of other races. These other races may 
have some compensating capacities which the stronger races lack, 
but the net balance may be heavy on the other side.™ And yet in 
the fulfilment of the whole life of humanity the capacities of each 
race and of all may be equally essential. 

There is much that we do not yet know. But we know enough 
to take home to ourselves some important lessons which Prof. 
Fleming draws out in his paper on “ Relative Racial Capacity ”: 
One is that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we 
ought to think. There should be a certain wholesome humility, 
such as there has never been in the past. As an English corre- 
spondent writes: “The whole of the British position in the East 
has been as de Gobineau pointed out long ago, built up by main- 
tenance of a caste system far more rigourous than the Portuguese, 
Spanish, French, Dutch, or other famous colonisers ever at- 
tempted. Without this caste system, it is indeed difficult to 
imagine how we could possibly have obtained our success in India 
at all, or how a handful of whites could have maintained their 
dominance over so many millions. We selected good men, and 
they went East definitely as superior beings, to play the role of 
Providence to extremely helpless people. But the system that made 
our success is now outgrown. Our supreme self-assurance, our 
consciousness of other people’s inferiority, has become a canker 
eating the Oriental heart.”** This is a lesson that the Anglo- 
Saxon especially ought to take home. Professor Fleming says: 


7° See Ross’s estimate of the capacity and general equality with us of 
the yellow race. The Changing Chinese, p. 63. 

“The American Army psychological tests during the war resulted in a 
higher average for the white soldiers as compared with the Negroes, but 
many considerations need to be weighed in this connection, including edu- 
cational advantages. See National Academy of Science Memoirs, Vol. XV, 
pp. 705-742. And Major Moton points out that in the first draft 75.60% of 
Negroes were accepted on the basis of physical fitness and only 69.71% of 
whites. The Negro of Today, p. 20. 

® Atlantic Monthly, May, 1923, art. by Arthur Moore, “ Bolshevism from 
an Eastern Angle.” 


100 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“Tt is very easy for the white race to assume its superiority as 
a matter of course, and to do without thinking a multitude of little 
things which rankle harmfully in the hearts of another people. 
Just as we have given up the idea of the divine right of 
kings, and are giving up the age-long conception of male superior- 
ity, we will very likely have to give up the flattering delusion of 
decided racial superiority. We can see, also, the right of each 
person to be treated as an individual and not classed in a 
group. . . . We forget that when we talk about the character- 
istics of a race as a whole, we are dealing with an abstraction that 
has no existence in nature. . . . If we were wishing to select 
a hundred people who are to be quite superior to another hundred, 
one of the most foolish ways would be to choose them by race. 
Selecting one hundred persons at random from one race sup- 
posedly superior, would by no means give you a group uniformly 
superior to another hundred chosen at random from a supposedly 
inferior race. . . . The selection of leadership by means of 
race alone would be a very inefficient method of procedure. 
This discussion may make us more ready to see the good in an- 
other people. . . . Lastly, the present stage of psychological 
tests should give us great confidence that, given the right sort of 
training, we can find in any group the leadership it needs.” ® 


If races are unequal, the right way to express the inequality is 
not by arbitrary and generalised discrimination, but by demonstra- 
tion of individual superiority in fair rivalry. As the Harvard 
Lampoon remarked in an editorial endorsing the action of the 
Overseers of the University adverse to racial discriminations in 
the regulations for admission of students: 


“Tt would indeed be a radical move for Harvard University to 
take definite measures toward the expulsion of Negroes and Jews, 
and the recent decision was by no means a surprise. ‘There are 
very few undergraduates who have any feeling about the Negroes 
whatsoever. 

“ But it is fair to say that a great many who profess broadmind- 
edness to their friends, secretly long for Harvard to be a college 
for the Christian races. ‘Their wish will never be gratified so long 
as there are Jews who work more earnestly and with greater dili- 
gence than Christians, so long as there are Jews whose minds are 


® International Review of Missions, Jan., 1923, art. on “ Relative Racial 
Capacity,” pp. 117-120. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 101 


quicker and keener, so long as there are Christians who scorn in- 
tellectual labour to the preference of idle hours wasted doing 
nothing. 

“What is needed to ‘ solve’ the racial problem is hard work for 
its own sake. There will never be a struggle for supremacy in 
numbers. It will forever be a silent rivalry of race, a competition 
for intellectual superiority. 

“Those who still want the Jews excluded can never do so by 
statutes and laws; they can only see to it that their own sons are 
keen enough to pass the entrance examinations with a higher mark 
than the sons of their Jewish classmates. 

“ Intellectual rivals need not be enemies; often they are the best 
of friends. Intellectual rivalry, such as one meets in entrance ex- 
aminations, does not concern itself with proving that the ‘ other 
fellow,’ whether he be Jew or Christian or ethical culturist, is 
dumber than you, but it consists in proving that you yourself are 
superior to all comers, whoever they may be. ‘There are many 


lessons of diligence and perseverance to be learned from the 
9? 80 
Jews. 


3. There is one way in which it is open to any race to affirm and 
demonstrate its superiority, and that is in its humble and unselfish 
service of other races, by maintaining a character for moral recti- 
tude and purity and by helping other races on their way, by ac- 
cepting the principle “ that racial greatness consists in service; that 
races are bound by the same code of honour that binds individuals 
to each other; that races are accountable to the same moral judg- 
ment bar before which individuals stand; that the relationships of 
races should be governed by the same Christian principle as that 
which obtains among all good men.” “In the long run,” as Prof. 
Conklin has said, “supremacy will pass in every community, na- 
tion or race to the more intelligent, the more capable, the more 
ethical. . . . In this struggle of races and peoples, there is 
reason to believe that success will ultimately rest with the intelli- 
gent, the capable, and the attention of all who love their race 
should be centered upon raising the standards of heredity, of edu- 
cation, and of social ideals.’ 4 


© Harvard Lampoon, May 8, 1923. 
The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 45f. Guizot, Htstory of 
Civilisation, chs. I, II. 


102 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“My only fear for white supremacy,” writes a great-spirited 
Southern woman, “is that we should prove unworthy of it. If 
we fail, then we shall pass. Supremacy is for service. It is sui- 
cide to thrust other races back from the good we hold for human- 
ity. For him who would be greatest the price is still that he 
should be servant of all.” ®? 

And the man or the race which truly is superior will find the 
whole world a brotherhood. In the Analects of Confucius we are 
told that Sze-me-Niu, full of anxiety said, “ Other men all have 
brothers. I only have not.’ One of the leaders of the disciples 
of Confucius, Tsze-hsia by name, replied: “ There is the following 
saying which | have heard: ‘ Death and life have their determined 
appointment; riches and honours depend upon heaven.’ Let the 
superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct and 
let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety; then all 
within the four seas will be his brothers. Why should the su- 
perior man be distressed because he has no brothers?” 8° Either 
he will find men brothers or he will make them so. That is the 
one sure proof of his superiority. 

“In a word,” wrote Bishop Bashford, “the influence of each 
race and each civilisation will last so long as it deserves to last. 
The influence of the white races will pale before the influence of 
the yellow races if the latter surpass us in intellectual and moral 
power.’ °4 

4. Let us return again to the fundamental thought of the unity 
of all races in the one race. And let us end this chapter with two 
noble assertions of it. 

One is an affirmation of faith in human unity based on the evi- 
dence of human speech and the intercommunication of men of the 
most diverse races. In an essay on “ Language as a Link,” Prof. 
smith, Waynflete Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at 
Oxford, writes avowing his faith 


“that mankind constitutes a real unity, that there is an identity 


* Hammond, /n Black and White, p. 89. 
Legge, Analects of Confucius, Book XII, chap. 5. 
* China, an Interpretation, p. 444. 


THE IDEA OF RACE SUPERIORITY 103 


of nature running through and present in all mankind. This is 
not, or not merely, a natural unity. It does not lie in, or arise 
from, singleness of ancestry or kinship of blood; it is not merely 
the result of historic accident or physical causes. I cannot think 
of it as less than a spiritual unity which can neither be produced 
nor destroyed from without. All men can say ‘ We’ with a truth 
and significance incommunicable to other beings than men: they 
share in a complex but single type of experience. And with this 
goes a mutual or reciprocal communion in which no other beings 
participate ; they are all literally one with one another.” ® 


The other word is by Mr. F. S. Marvin: 


“A dangerous frame of mind has often prevailed in the past, 
and is naturally feared by good people in the present, a conscious- 
ness of progress by those who share it, with pride of place, and a 
claim to overlordship in the interests of the overlord and the detri- 
ment of others. The danger is real; such ill-used strength has 
wrought devastation for centuries, but is by no means inherent in 
the enlightened consciousness of progress or power. It is power 
without enlightenment and without responsibility that works evil 
and may ruin a race as it has often ruined a family. The en- 
lightenment needed here concerns the source of Western power ; 
the responsibility arises from any fair consideration of its proper 
use. We are ready to say that the West must be trustee for the 
rest of mankind; this book, in fact, sets out to be a variation on 
that theme. But such sound and high doctrine needs for its full 
force the realisation of the social and historic truth on which it 
rests. The West should be the world-trustee, not because of any 
inherent right, still less because of its temporary power, but be- 
cause the riches and resources which it holds, have come to it, 
directly or indirectly, at near or far remove, from the whole race 
of man. The gifts of Humanity, all Humanity must enjoy and 
thrive on them, or it will be impoverished and decay, including 
the vanguard which has, at the moment, the largest share. 

“If this seems merely the language of exhortation, describing 
rather an ideal laid up in heaven than the possibilities of a sinful 
world, it will be well to consider how profound is the common 
basis of all human culture, how deep the debt of the most ad- 
vanced sections of mankind to all their predecessors, perhaps most 
of all to the earliest and simplest. Art, numeration, all the most 
indispensable inventions, fire, the wheel, the loom, the bow, the 





© Western Races and the World, p. 30f. 


104 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


knife, are due to races of mankind struggling against natural 
hardships which we soft Westerners can now barely imagine, and 
certainly with their equipment could never face. These men, 
were they now alive, would rank with the most backward of 
existing races.*® 

“Let us now look at our problem in the light of this historical 
perspective, which anthropology has opened up to us in recent 
years. Our first analogy was that of a family, and we shall find 
that we come back to that as the nearest and most helpful guide. 
All the races of mankind, in view of their common origin and 
common qualities, may be regarded as one family, with one home 
and one Father, however we may conceive that greatest and high- 
est of Beings who embraces and sustains us. 

“We, therefore, as one family, owe affection and service to one 
another, and all of us feel and recognise this tie according to our 
powers of sympathy and understanding. But, like all analogies, 
this one is not complete; there is something less on the one side, 
and something more on the other. The family of nations is far 
less united by love and constant association, and the various mem- 
bers in too many cases have never even heard of one another. 
But, on the other hand, there is something more in the wider rela- 
tion which history and sociology have lately revealed to us. 

“Every member in the great family, even the strongest and 
most advanced, owes the essentials of social life to races of men 
similar in civilisation to those whom we now regard as backward, 
and whom we are called upon, as our kindred, to help on their 
upward path.” §7 


“Every single one of the important plant foods was discovered and 
brought into cultivation by prehistoric man. Our bygone progenitors must 
have been pretty busy old fellows and just as keen as their descendants. 

There is nothing to indicate the superiority of contemporary man 
over the Cro-Magnon man of some 30,000 years ago in inherent capacity.” 
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 162, 19. 

"Western Races and the W orld, pp. 14-16. All races succeed to and 

build upon other races. Okuma, Fifty Years of New Japan, p. 463. 


Ill 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE AND RACE 
DISTINCTION 


N the rich imagery of four of the Prophets, the Hebrew race 
is spoken of as “mother.”? It is significant that in each 
passage where this noble metaphor is used the race is held up 

to reprobation and reproach for its shortcomings or transgres- 
sions. It is as though the Prophets sought to bring out in the 
degradation and misuse of race the fact of its honour and glory. 
A man’s race was his mother. What more glorious tribute could 
be paid to its true nature and significance? A man should feel 
and act with regard to his race as he would with regard to his 
mother. He would defend her from any assault of word or deed. 
He would never endure from others and he would never tolerate 
from himself one word of slander or disrespect regarding her. 
He would never do or allow to be done in her name or in her 
alleged interest any mean or dishonourable thing. He would act 
toward the mothers of other men as he would wish them to act 
toward his own. The world and the world’s history would be 
different if men had always spoken and acted with regard to all 
races, their own and others, in this conception of motherhood, and 
it would be a long step today toward the solution of the race 
problem if we would always speak of race as a man would speak 
of his own or of another man’s mother. 

Such a way of looking at race would dispose at once of all race 
shame, secrecy, disrespect or contempt. Mr. Belloc, in his book 
on The Jews, speaks of the convention so long maintained 
by Jews 


“against alluding to Jewish nationality or Jewish interests in 
any form. Whether the Jews were wise or not to cherish that 


Bisa eral e ss nzek AL Se OT osn east LV oy 
105 


106 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


convention, as they undoubtedly did, does not concern this part 
of my argument. I am talking of our duty and not of theirs. But 
I say that unless the convention is softened and at last dissolved, 
nothing can be done. Both parties should know that it only does 
harm. It renders stilted and absurd all our relations; it fosters 
that suspicion of secrecy which I have insisted upon as the chief 
irritant in those relations, and it creates a feeling of exception, of 
oddity, which is the very worst service that could be rendered to 
the Jews themselves. 

“Some little time ago the convention went so far that even a 
mention, a neutral—nay, a laudatory mention, of anything Jewish 
in a general company led to an immediate awkwardness. Men 
looked over their shoulders, women gave downward glances right 
and left. A sort of hunt began, to see whether anyone present 
could possibly in any remote connection be offended by the mon- 
strous deed. If a man said, ‘What a poet Heine was and how 
thoroughly Jewish is his irony!’ and said it in a room full of 
people, the adjective ‘ Jewish’ acted like a pistol shot—could any- 
thing be more absurd! Yet so it was. 

“But the point I make is not against the absurdity of this con- 
vention but against its peril. It is an obstacle to all right handling 
of what is becoming daily a more and more insistent and acute 
difficulty.”’ 2 


The Jews are not the only people who have maintained or en- 
dured this convention or who are now escaping from it. Many 
Negroes and members of other races have at times felt, or shown 
their fear of, a tone of race depreciation. ‘The manly spirit of 
self-respect, devoid of all boasting on one side and of all syco- 
phancy on the other is more and more characterising each race 
and ought to characterise it. It is or ought to be just as proud a 
distinction for a Chinese to be a Chinese, or an African an Af- 
rican, as for a Frenchman to be a Frenchman or an American an 
American. Each race has a work to do in the world for itself and 
for all races which no other race can do. To be born into any 
race, to be a worthy member of it, lifting it to its true character 
and its true duty, is glory and honour for any man. “ To admit 
that racial distinctions actually exist,” says Mr. Madison Grant, 
“raises at once the presumption of the innate superiority of one 


? Belloc, The Jews, p. 258. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 107 


race over another.” * But does it raise this presumption except 
in the minds of those who see it everywhere and whose minds are 
closed to any other presumption? Distinctions in nature do not 
all involve the presumption of inferiority. They suggest instead 
the richness of diversity and the contribution of differences to a 
more comprehensive unity. 

The existence of races gives richness and variety to humanity. 
In any one section of mankind, race or family, it is a good thing 
that the individuals are not all alike. So also of all mankind. St. 
Paul wrote, nineteen centuries ago, a great statement on the unity 
and variety of humanity. It is a noble biological conception of 
the ideal society pictured in the conception of the Church as an 
organism : 


“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there 
are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are 
diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things 
in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to 
profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of 
wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the 
same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another 
gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings of 
miracles ; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of 
spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the in- 
terpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the one and the 
same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as he will. For as the 
body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of 
the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For in one 
Spirit were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, 
whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. 
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, 
‘Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body’; it is not 
therefore not of the body. And if the ear shall say, ‘ Because I 
am not the eye, I am not of the body’; it 1s not therefore not of 
the body. Ii the whole body were an eye, where were the hear- 
ing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But 
now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even 
as it pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were 
the body? But now they are many members, but one body. And 


’New York Times, Book Review, Nov. 12, 1922, Grant’s review of 
Gould’s America, a Family Matter. 


108 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of thee’; nor 
again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ Nay, much 
rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble 
are necessary: and those parts of the body, which we think to be 
less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; 
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; whereas 
our comely parts have no need; but God tempered the body to- 
gether, giving more abundant honour to that part which lacked; 
that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members 
should have the same care one for another. And whether one 
member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member 
is honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body 
of Christ, and severally members thereof.” * 


This is the greatest utterance in all literature on the race prob- 
lem. The diversity of humanity is essential to its health and life 
and glory. “As we see the value of the individual, of every indi- 
vidual, so we must see the value of each nation, that all are 
needed. . . . There is not room on this planet,” says Miss Fol- 
lett, “for a lot of similar nations, but only for a lot of different 
nations. A group of nations must create a group culture which 
shall be broader than the culture of one nation alone.”® And the 
Southern white woman who has been already quoted and who is 
one of those seeking really to apply the Christian spirit to the race 
problem, writes: “ Life does not develop towards uniformity, but 
towards richness of variety in a unity of beauty and service. Un- 
less the Race of Man contradicts all known laws of life it will 
develop in the same way; and whether white, or yellow, or black, 
they who guard their own racial integrity, in a spirit of brother- 
hood free from all other-racial scorn, will most truly serve the 
Race to which all belong. What we white people need to lay aside 
is not our care for racial separateness, but our prejudice. The 
black race needs, in aspiring to the fullest possible development, to 
foster a fuller faith in its own blood, and in the world’s need for 
some service which it, and it alone, can render in richest measure 
to the great Brotherhood of Man.” ® This is the Negro’s desire 


SA AOL ONL 4-27, 
® Follett, The New State, p. 344 ff. 
*Hammond, Jn Black and White, p. 44. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 109 


for himself. “The Negro wants to be himself in colour and in 
distinguishing characteristics, to perfect all his possibilities, to 
have latitude for the unfolding of essential elements of character 
by which friction from individual and group contact is reduced. 
He wishes to contribute of the richness of his individuality, with- 
out having his claims to justice and equality questioned, ignored, 
abridged or denied. In other words, he claims the right to be 
different without being treated or necessarily considered an 
mirerior.’’ ? 

The effort of races to fulfill themselves, and to achieve what 
other races have achieved and to attain a rational self-adequacy, 
in a spirit of service and not of isolation, is a wholesome and en- 
larging moral discipline for men as individuals and for human 
society. It is beyond the scope of our study to consider the relation 
of the conception of the solidarity of the human race to such 
economic problems as the question of free trade and protection. 
Hither theory is reconcilable with the unity of human interest if it 
is so conceived and followed, and if it is practiced in the ultimate 
interest of all mankind; although the theory of free trade may be 
held to be presumptively the truer theory for a really unified 
world. But in a world so imperfectly unifed as ours, and com- 
pelled to operate by the device of distinct races and nationalities, 
and providentially subjected to the education of such operations 
for rich and justifying ends,—in such a world the duty of each 
race to perfect itself and to seek a full equipment for its racial 
task is a duty whose fulfilment is good for each race and for all 
races. A movement like the Swadeshi, or home-industry, move- 
ment of India, is at the bottom a wholesome movement. It springs 
from the realisation of the fact that the most injurious subjection 
of a race may be not its obvious political subjection, but its invis- 
ible economic subordination. As Mr. Ranade, one of India’s 
greatest leaders, said twenty-five years ago: “ The political domi- 
nation of one country by another attracts far more attention than 
the more formidable though unfelt domination, which the capital, 


7 The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1922, an by Nannie Helen 
Burroughs, “ Legitimate Ambitions of the N egro.” 


110 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


enterprise and skill of one country exercise over the trade and 
manufactures of another. This latter domination has an in- 
sidious influence which paralyses the springs of all the various 
activities which together make up the life of a nation.”® Mr. 
Montague and Lord Chelmsford recognised this and in their 
reform measures they approved the Indian demand for economic 
self-development : 


“The people are poor, and their poverty raises the question 
whether the general level of well-being could not be materially 
raised by the development of industries. It is also clear that the 
lack of outlet for educated youth is a serious misfortune which 
has contributed not a little in the past to political unrest in Bengal. 
But perhaps an even greater mischief is the discontent aroused in 
the minds of those who are jealous for India by seeing that she is 
so largely dependent on foreign countries for manufactured goods. 
They noted that her foreign trade was always growing, but they 
also saw that its leading feature continued to be the barter of raw 
materials valued at relatively low prices for imported manufac- 
tures, which obviously afforded profits and prosperity to other 
countries industrially more advanced. Patriotic Indians might 
well ask themselves why these profits should not accrue to their 
country ; and also why so large a portion of the industries which 
flourished in the country was financed by European capital and 
managed by European skill. . . . Economic discontents defi- 
nitely merged in political agitation over the partition of Bengal. 
The Swadeshi movement was the positive, and the boycott the 
negative expression of the same purpose. The advanced poli- 
ticlans took up and tried to put in practice the ideas for new 
developments promoted by the newly-instituted industrial confer- 
ence, while at the same time they encouraged or countenanced the 
boycott, which had been adopted in the hope of bringing pressure 
to bear on manufacturing opinion at home in favour of the annul- 
ment of the partition. These events synchronised with Japan’s 
defeat of Russia, an event which dazzled the imagination of many 
young educated Indians. In Japanese progress and efficiency they 
thought they saw an example of what could be effected by an 
Asiatic nation free of foreign control. Many students helped by 
scholarships granted by patriotic persons or associations hurried 
to Japan for technical and industrial training. Many of them 
returned to take part in the Swadeshi movement of the years 1907 


* Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, p. 264. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 111 


to 1909. . . . On all grounds a forward policy in industrial 
development is urgently called for, not merely to give India eco- 
nomic stability; but in order to satisfy the aspirations of her 
people who desire to see her stand before the world as a well- 
poised, up-to-date country; in order to provide an outlet for the 
energies of her young men who are otherwise drawn exclusively 
to government service or a few overstocked professions; in order 
that money now lying unproductive may be applied to the benefit 
of the whole community ; and in order that the too speculative and 
literary tendencies of Indian thought may be bent to more prac- 
tical ends, and the people may be better qualified to shoulder the 
aoe responsibilities which the new constitution will lay upon 
them.” 


It is a good thing for each race and for all the world that there 
has not been any dead level of racial attainment but that all have 
had to struggle together and with various measures of speed in 
their achievement and against various forms of difficulty and 
hindrance. What Mr. Gladstone wrote at the age of twenty-three 
is true of nations as of men: “In the future,” said he, “I hope 
circumstances will bind me down to work with a rigour which my 
natural sluggishness will find it impossible to elude. Periods like 
these through which I have been passing, grievous generally in 
many of their results, are by no means unfavourable to the due 
growth and progress of individual character. I remember a very 
wise saying of Archidamus in Thucydides, that the being edu- 
cated in the midst of difficulties brings strength and efficacy to the 
character.” The passage to which Mr. Gladstone refers is where 
Archidamus says: “ We should remember that man differs little 
from man except that he turns out best who is trained in the 
sharpest school.” The richer and sterner each race’s struggle for 
self-realisation has been, if its spirit is pure of hatred or false 
pride, the larger its contribution to the whole life of humanity. 

Some modes of racial segregation have been brought about and 
are maintained in the interest of just forms of racial pride and 
self-expression. Mary White Ovington speaks of this in Half 
a Man: 


° Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, pp. 264-267. 


112 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


4 

“While the coloured people in New York started with segre- 
gated schools and attained to mixed schools, the movement in the 
churches was the reverse. At first the Negroes were attendants 
of white churches, sitting in the gallery or on the rear seats, and 
waiting until the white people were through before partaking of 
the communion; but as their number increased they chafed under 
their position. Why should they be placed apart to hear the doc- 
trine of Christ, and why, too, should they not have full oppor- 
tunity to preach that doctrine? The desire for self-expression 
was perhaps the greatest factor in leading them to separate from 
the white church,” 1° 


If the distinction of race was not to be forgotten in the Church, 
some such development as this was inevitable. But it may be 
objected that there is no more warrant for such separation of race 
in the interest of self-expression than for the separation of sex. 
If white and Negro churches are necessary, why not separate 
churches for men and women? ‘The answer which some are 
making is that there may be some form of such separate churches, 
if the Church does not recognise equality of sex. Where race 
and sex cannot find adequate opportunity for full service and 
self-expression and fulfillment of function within any single as- 
sociation or institution, their separate organisation would seem to 
be reasonable and necessary, and essential to the development of 
the maximum social good. 

In some American denominations Negroes are members on the 
same basis as whites, but have practically no part in the life or 
government of the Church. In others they are members some- 
times in white local congregations and sometimes in separate con- 
gregations of their own with their own minister, participating 
fully in the administration and government of the denomination. 
In other cases they are organised with separate dioceses, with or 
without their own bishops. A fourth type of organisation is the 
wholly separate and independent Negro denomination. The over- 
whelming majority of the Negroes are in churches of this fourth 
type. An interesting discussion on this question occurred at the 
General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New 


® Ovington, Half a Man, p. 19 f. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 113 


York in 1913, over the question of establishing a racial Negro 
diocese. The delegates from the South were divided. A lay dele- 
gate from South Carolina opposed the suggestion : 


“* From whom does this request come?’ asked Mr. Bacot. ‘I 
am reliably informed that the Negroes of the Seventh Missionary 
District have not asked the General Convention for a separate 
diocese. In Virginia and South Carolina they are against it, and 
in my own diocese I know they do not want it. It seems that only 
those communicants in North Carolina want it. 

““* Now, our position is this: We do not think that a race which 
is developing, or rather which has not developed to such extent 
that it is capable of self-administration, should be permitted to 
have the full power of a diocese. Personally I do not believe that 
the evolution of the Negro has gone far enough to justify the 
Church in granting to him the highest order. If the Negroes are 
allowed to have a separate missionary district, they will desire 
separate councils, and in the end they will want to have an entirely 
separate church. In that event we would have the Protestant 
Episcopal Church White and the Protestant Episcopal Church 


P Black and probably the A. P. E. Church.’ 


“‘ Speaking for the proposed plan, John C. Buxton, lay deputy 
from the Diocese of North Carolina, said: ‘The gentleman from 
South Carolina has asserted that this matter was thrashed out and 
settled satisfactorily at the Boston Convention. I want to say 
that’s not the first mistake that was ever made at Boston on the 
Negro question.’ 

“When the laughter of the House of Deputies had subsided he 
explained that a separate missionary district for the Negroes was 
favoured by his diocese because it was believed to be for the good 
of that race. Mr. Buxton recalled the allegiance the Negroes of 


_ the South had given to their masters during the Civil War, when 
_ they were left to take care of the wives and children of the South- 


ern soldiers who had gone to the front. He said that every con- 


_ sideration should be given to the Negro communicants, and added 
_ that he did not desire a separate diocese for coloured people as a 


y 


matter of race discrimination, because he would just as soon touch 
elbows with a Negro as with a white man when the time came to 
partake of the Holy Communion. He advised that the report of 


_ the majority be accepted if the Episcopal Church desired to be rid 
_ of the Negro. 


“Opposing a racial missionary diocese, the Rev. George S. 
Whitney, of the Diocese of Georgia, said that the real friends of 


114 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the Negro race did not desire to give them an excuse to get out 
of the Church and establish an ‘A. P. EF. Church.’ Dr. Whitney 
said that he was born in the North and had been in the South for 
fifteen years. The Negro, he said, was not yet ready to under- 
take the great responsibility of an independent diocese. ‘The race 
already had shown its inability to conduct an independent admin- 
istration. Furthermore, Dr. Whitney said that white rectors, or 
priests, who had work among Negro communicants in all proba- 
bility would be forced to give up their tasks if they were placed 
under the jurisdiction of a Negro bishop.” ** 


Just as racial effort and economic self-dependence is a good 
thing for the world, so is the desire and struggle for racial self- 
determination. We were made very familiar with the idea of the 
self-determination of peoples by the discussions of the war time. 
But the conception did not come into being then for the first time. 
We must not wince today when reminded of its explicit avowal in 
the Declaration of Independence: “ Governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed. . . . Whenever any 
government becomes destructive of these ends (4. e., the securing 
of the rights of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness), it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to 
institute a new government, laying its foundation on such prin- 
ciples and organising its powers in such form as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” If these 
were true principles for us in 1776, why are they not true prin- 
ciples for all men always? 

Before the war made the phrase “race autonomy ” cosmopol- 
itan, a speaker at the Universal Races Congress dealt with the 
subject dispassionately with a view to pointing out the race-gain 
of the idea that no race is barred from freedom and power by any 
fiat of racial incapacity. The unrest of races subjected to domina- 
tion from without, he conceived to be a good and inevitable thing. 


3 


“Unless,” he argued, “it is alleged that a man confessedly 
fallible in dealing with the members of his own advanced race 
becomes infallible when dealing with men whose language, ideals, 


™ New York Times, Oct. 23, 1913. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 115 


and religion are alien to his, it follows that mistakes are made by 
all dominant races in their treatment of subject races. 

“Ts it to be desired, then, that the latter should be either too 
unintelligent to know when they are misruled or too apathetic to 
care? The avowal of either desire would obviously amount to a 
complete condemnation of the ideal or polity involving it. Every 
_ polity professes to aim at betterment. But where there exist no 
means of correction or protest on the part of those who suffer by 
errors of government, there must be generated either apathetic 
_ despair or a smoldering resentment. It would be gratuitously ab- 
surd to expect that the men of the ‘backward’ race should be 
positively more patiently forgiving or more cheerfully tolerant 
than their ‘advanced’ masters. If they can be so, they are the 
more ‘advanced’ race of the two, in some of the main points of 
‘capacity for self rule. . . . If the ruled are to progress, they 
_ must think and judge; and if they think and judge they must from 
_ time to time be dissatisfied. There is no escape from the dilemma ; 
and if the ruling race is at all conscientious, at all sincere in its 
_ professed desire for the betterment of its subjects, it must desire 
to know when and why they are dissatisfied. The need for reci- 
_ procity holds no less, albeit with a difference, in the case of the 
ruler. To exercise an absolute control over a community or a 
_congeries of communities in the belief that one is absolutely in- 
fallible, is to tread the path of insanity. 

_ “To know that one is politically fallible, and yet never to care 
_ for the opinion of those whom one may be at any moment mis- 
_ governing, is to set conscience aside. Either way, demoralisation 
_ or deterioration follows as inevitably for the ruler as for the ruled. 
_ “All history proclaims the lesson. Whether we take ancient 
despots ruling empires through satraps, or States playing the 
despot to other States, the sequence is infallibly evil. Never is 
there any continuity of sound life. In the absence of control from 
the governed, the despotisms invariably grew corrupt and 
feeble. . . . The contemporary problem may be put in a nut- 
shell. Are the subject races of today progressing or not? If 
yes, they must be on the way, however slowly, to a measure of 
self-government. If not, the domination of the advanced races is 
a plain failure; and the talk of ‘beneficent rule’ becomes an idle 
hypocrisy. The only possible alternative thesis is that the subject 
races are incapable of progress; and this is actually affirmed by 
some imperialists who reason that only in ‘temperate climates’ do 
the natural conditions essential to self-government subsist. Their 
_ doctrine may be left to the acceptance of all who can find ground 
for exultation and magniloquence in the prospect of a perpetual 


116 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


dominion of white men over cowed coloured races who secretly 


and helplessly hate them. . . . The perpetual absence of every 
element of political self-determination from a people’s life means 
a failure of civilisation. . . . It would seem that a first step 


towards a scientific or even a quasi-rational view of the problem 
must be to put aside the instinctive hypothesis that faculty for 
self-government is a matter of ‘race.’” 


And the working out of this problem of reasonable and ethical 
and fiduciary autonomy by each race for itself, and by the 
“stronger”? races for the “ weaker,” is a school of humanity 
wherein all men are meant to learn lessons of self-control, of kind- 
ness and of truth. The problem is infinitely difficult. Human 
races do not move collectively. There are always more progres- 
sive nations which cannot wait for the patient education of the 
mass, and there are always in every race men who seek their own 
interests or the supposed interests of their race above the interests 
of humanity, and back of all moral deficiencies lie our mutual in- 
capacities, our want of sympathy and imagination of power to 
judge causes and forces and foresee consequences and effects. 
Men and races are simply unequal to the tasks they have to deal 
with. But the acknowledgment of this and the humble desire to 
work with God in the making of humanity are genuine benefits of 
the institution of race outweighing its evils. It is part of this 
education that “strong” races must surmount their appetite for 
dominion and “ weak” races transcend their servility. Only this 
cannot be done, as many of the young men of India seem to think 
it can, by denouncing the “slave mentality”’ of their race and 
reproaching the influence of British rule in India which is alleged 
to have crushed out the freedom of the Indian soul. It can only 
be done by disproving that freedom has been crushed out and by 
displaying not a servile but a noble and human mind. Races rise 
to their own place not by making claims or bemoaning errors, but 
by achieving work and by rendering service. Other races cannot 
raise them or make them free. Each race must do these things 
for itself. No man can give another man his independence. The 


Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper by John M. Robertson, M.P., on 
“The Rationale of Autonomy,” pp. 41-44. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 117 


first man can disclaim responsibility for the second, but if the 
second man is to be self-dependent, only he can achieve it. Mr. 
Stone states a universal truth about races and men when he says: 
“When the friend of the Negro masses would know the whole 
truth behind the forces which today most militate against the 
material progress of the race, he must go deep below the surface 
of troubles which the white man can remove or rectify.” 13 The 
white race can do much, far more than it has yet done, to help 
other races, but in the same sense for races as for men, God bids 
us to work out our own salvation, and He made races that He 
might save men with a yet greater salvation. 

Just as every man has a proper and righteous pride in his 
mother, so every man ought to have a just and ennobling pride in 
his race. There are brave spirits in some of the races to whom 
this love of race and loyalty of racial duty means a living sacrifice. 
Thus a clear seer of one of the South American races writes: 


“I believe that the place that God has given one within the 
race, be that whatever it may, even the most despised, is His com- 
mandment, His will, and we must be absolutely faithful to that 
place even to the most extreme duty. 

“T am of this race, weakened by its mixtures, filled with sores, 
menaced by its disgraceful bloody struggles, half asleep at the 
most important time in its destiny. I look and I measure the mag- 
nitude of its defects. I count its errors one by one. There is no 
other probably who has a more capable eye to see its negligence. 
I have at times been called an outcast because of the sane com- 
parison I have made between it and other races which work for 
the world. But I am faithful to my own and I must remain with 
it even until the end. I have the greatest possible pain concerning 
its future. I have seen the many pages of criticism which I have 
read in the South concerning my country. Believing them unjust, 
yet without the hard-headedness of a person who does not care to 
think, I accept the harsh judgments which are made against my 
people. But I maintain absolutely my filial attitude toward 
them.” 14 


It would be hard to find a more worthy illustration of such 


1% Stone, The American Race Problem, p. 147. 
“Letter, Miss Gabriella Mistral to S. G. Inman, Jan., 1924. 


118 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


pride, at once humble, modest and exalted, than Booker Washing- 
ton’s Up from Slavery. A manly race-spirit breathes from every 
page of that book from the first paragraph to the last. 

This is the first paragraph: 


“T was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Vir- 
ginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my 
birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere 
and at some time. As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was 
born near a cross-roads post office called Hale’s Ford, and the year 
was 1858 or 1859. I do not know the month or the day. The 
earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and 
the slave quarters—the latter being the part of the plantation 
where the slaves had their cabins.” 


And this is the last: 


“This time I am in Richmond as the guest of the coloured 
people of the city; and came at their request to deliver an address 
last night to both races in the Academy of Music, the largest and 
finest audience room in the city. This was the first time that the 
coloured people have ever been permitted to use this hall. The 
day before I came, the City Council passed a vote to attend 
the meeting in a body to hear me speak. The state Legislature, 
including the House of Delegates and the Senate, also passed a 
unanimous vote to attend in a body. In the presence of hundreds 
of coloured people, many distinguished white citizens, the City 
Council, the state Legislature, and state officials, I delivered my 
message, which was one of hope and cheer; and from the bottom 
of my heart I thanked both races for this welcome back to the 
state that gave me birth.” 


Between these two paragraphs lie many others which reveal the 
right racial sense for every man: 


“T have learned that success is to be measured not so much by 
the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which 
he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this 
standpoint, I almost reach the conclusion that often the Negro 
boy’s birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, 
so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro 
youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 119 


than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of 
the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to 
pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose path- 
way is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race. From 
any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the 
Negro race, than be able to claim membership with the most 
favoured of any other race. 

“I believe that my race will ehecead in proportion as it learns 
to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a 
thing so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has 
done ; learns to make its services of indispensable value. This was 
the spirit that inspired me in my first effort at Hampton, when I 
was given the opportunity to sweep and dust that schoolroom. In 
a degree I felt that my whole future life depended upon the thor- 
oughness with which I cleaned that room, and I was determined to 
do it so well that no one could find any fault with the job. Few 
people ever stopped, I found, when looking at his pictures, to in- 
quire whether Mr. Tanner was a Negro painter, a French painter, 
or a German painter. They simply knew that he was able to pro- 
duce something which the world wanted—a great painting—and 
the matter of his colour did not enter into their minds. When a 
Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, to write a book, 
or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, 
or to produce butter, or to build a house, or to be able to practise 
medicine, as well or better than some one else, they will be re- 
warded regardless of race or colour. In the long run, the world 
is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or 
previous history will not long keep the world from what it wants. 

“T think that the whole future of my race hinges on the ques- 
tion as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable 
value that the people in the town and state where we reside will 
feel that our presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being 
of the community. No man who continues to add something to 
the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in 
which he lives is long left without proper reward. This is a great 
human law which cannot be emg! nullified.” 1 


Such a man’s pride in his race makes the race more worthy of 
pride. And often the proud spirit of a race will hold up a man 
who would have fallen if he had leaned on personal pride or self- 
respect, but whom his race consciousness made strong. There is 


“Up from Slavery, pp. 1, 319, 39 f, 280 ff. 


120 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


a striking poem by Sir Alfred Lyall entitled: “Theology in Ex- 
tremis, or a soliloquy that may have been delivered in India, June, 
1857.” Prefixed to the poem is the statement: “ ‘They would 
have spared life to any of their English prisoners who should con- 
sent to profess Mohammedanism, by repeating the usual short 
formula: but only one half-caste cared to save himself in that 
way.’ 16 The poem describes the thoughts of an Englishman 
who had been taken prisoner by Mohammedan rebels in the 
Indian Mutiny. He is face to face with a cruel death. They 
offer him his life if he will repeat something from the Koran. If 
he complies, no one is likely ever to hear of it, and he will be free 
to return to England and to the woman he loves. Moreover, and 
here is the real point, he is not a believer in Christianity, so that it 
is no question of denying his Saviour. What ought he to do? 
Deliverance is easy, and the relief and advantage would be un- 
speakably great. But he does not really hesitate and every shadow 
of doubt disappears when he hears his fellow prisoner, a half- 
caste, pattering eagerly the words demanded. He himself has no 
hope of heaven and he loves life— 


“Yet for the honour of English race 
May I not live or endure disgrace. 
Ay, but the word if I could have said it, 
I by no terrors of hell perplext, 
Hard to be silent and have no credit 
From men in this world, or reward in the next; 
None to bear witness and reckon the cost 
Of the name that is saved by the life that is lost. 
I must begone to the crowd untold 
Of men by the cause which they served unknown, 
Who moulder in myriad graves of old; 
Never a story and never a stone 
Tells of the martyrs who died like me 
Just for the pride of the old countree.” 


The motives which held this man are not of the highest, but 
nevertheless they are high. The pride of loyalty to the best moral 
ideals of one’s race and of fidelity to its traditions is a worthy 


** Extract from an Indian newspaper. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 121 


and uplifting pride. If better moral ideals than these appear and 
if the old traditions are found to be at variance with truth, it is a 
man’s duty to abandon the racial grooves. This is only to say 
again that race is a great principle but that humanity is greater 
and that its parts only fulfill their mission as they come together 
in the whole. “JI do not pin my dreams for the future to my 
country or even to my race,” said Mr. Justice Holmes, of the 
United States Supreme Court. ‘‘ Beyond the vision of battling 
races and the impoverished earth, I catch a dreaming glimpse of 
peace.” *7 “And that dream belongs only to a true pride and a 
true humility. The intimation which we get from nature and from 
the history of man is that the meek are, after all, to inherit the 
earth, and that their inheritance is to be assured only through 
the complete communion of which the word heard around the 
world gives prophecy.” 18 

The best white sentiment of the South is coming to realise that 
pride of race is an equal good for both the black and the white 
races and that the best solution of the problem of social equality 
is to develop in each race a sense of true race pride. As Dr. 
Weatherford says: 


“So long as all honour lies in being associated with the white 
man, the Negro will want social intermingling. So long as there 
are none of his own race that can meet him on a high plane and 
can satisfy the longings of his soul, just so long will he be driven 
to seek fellowship with white men. But build him 1p, make him 
sufficient in himself, give him within his own race that life which 
will satisfy, and the social question will be solved. The cultivated 
Negro is less and less inclined to lose himself and his race in the 
sea of another race. As he develops, he is building a new race 
pride. He no longer objects to being called a Negro—uit is be- 
coming the badge of his race and the mark of his self-sufficiency. 
We have nothing, therefore, to fear from giving him a chance.” 79 


And not only nothing to fear but everything to gain. New human 


™ New York Times, April 21, 1913. 

18 New York Times, editorial, “ Fossils of Failure,” Jan. 15, 1923. 

19 Racial Relations and the Christian Ideal, p. 58; Weatherford, Race 
Relationships in the South, Vol. I, p. 173. 


122 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


values will be added to the national wealth. And between two 
races, each equally justified in cherishing a true racial pride, the 
question of inter-race relationship will be lifted to an entirely 
new plane. 

It is a good thing for mankind to have the discipline of the 
duty of rising from race prejudice and ignorance to a higher level 


wv of interracial knowledge and sympathy. There is, even in many 


of the best men of the modern world, a strange insularity and 
want of world view and race insight which needs this discipline. 
“The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page” reveal what a large, 
true, human spirit he was. He was one of the first as a young 
man “to take an open stand for the pitiably neglected black man: 
he insisted that he should be taught to read and write, and in- 
structed in agriculture and the manual trades. A man who advo- 
cated such revolutionary things in those days was accused—and 
Page was so accused—of attempting to promote the ‘ social equal- 
ity ’ of the two races.” 7? 


“The only acceptable measure of any civilisation, Page believed, 
‘ was the extent to which it improved the condition of the common 
citizen. A few cultured and university-trained men at the top; a 
few ancient families living in luxury; a few painters and poets 
and statesmen and generals; these things, in Page’s view, did not 
constitute a satisfactory state of society; the real test was the ex- 
tent to which the masses participated in education, in the necessi- 
ties and comforts of existence, in the right of self-evolution and 
self-expression, in that ‘equality of opportunity,’ which, Page 
never wearied of repeating, ‘was the basis of social progress.’ 
The mere right to vote and to hold office was not democracy ; 
parliamentary majorities and political caucuses were not democ- 
racy—at the best these things were only details and not the most 
important ones; democracy was the right to every man to enjoy, 
in accordance with his aptitudes of character and mentality, the 
material and spiritual opportunities that nature and science had 
placed at the disposition of mankind. This democratic creed had 
now become the dominating interest of Page’s life.” *4 : 

\ 


In one of his letters to his brother he wrote of classes in 


® The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Vol. I, p. 43. 
1 [bid., p. 71. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 123 


England words which might be applied to races: “To an American 
democrat the sad thing is the servile class. Before the law the 
chimney sweep and the peer have exactly the same standing. They 
have worked that out with absolute justice. But there it stops. 
The serving class is what we would call abject. It does not occur 
to them that they might ever become—or that their descendants 
might ever become—ladies and gentlemen.” *? 


“In an address delivered in June, 1914, before the Royal Insti- 
tution of Great Britain, Page gave what he regarded as the defini- 
tion of the American ideal. ‘The fundamental article in the creed 
of the American democracy—you may call it the fundamental 
dogma if you like—is the unchanging and unchangeable resolve 
that every human being shall have his opportunity for his utmost 
development—his chance to become and to do the best that he can.’ 
Democracy is not only a system of government—‘ it is a scheme of 
society.’ Every citizen must have not only the suffrage, he must 
likewise enjoy the same advantages as his neighbour for educa- 
tion, for social opportunity, for good health, for success in agri- 
culture, manufacture, finance, and business and professional life. 
The country that most successfully opened all these avenues to. 
every boy and girl, exclusively on individual merit, was in Page’s 
view the most democratic.” 78 


But these great principles do not seem to have been given in 
Mr. Page’s biography the universal application which, if they are 
genuine principles, they must be given. If they are sound for 
white people, so are they sound for black and yellow people. If 
America ought to be democratic in the sense described, so also 
should the world. Page thought in noble terms of the British and 
American peoples, but his dream for them is the true dream for 
all peoples. 

Part of the discipline of spirit which a true world-feeling in- 
volves is the conquest of race-partisanship. Men must learn how 
to have a true race-pride without contempt or effrontery or false 
assumption toward other races. An American writer says: “ The 
superiority of a race cannot be preserved without pride of blood 
and an uncompromising attitude toward the lower races,” and he 


"Ibid, p. 155. *Ibid., p. 191. 


124 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


proceeds to contrast the dedication of the United States and 
Canada to the highest type of civilisation with Latin America 
which “ for centuries will drag the ball and chain of hybridism.” ** 
Another American writer applies these words with approval to 
the attitude of the white to the black race in the United States. 
Yet elsewhere he realises that no hopeful and happy solution of 
race problems or of human life is possible on the basis of such an 
attitude of mind. “ The essence of the race problem is that of the 
peaceful common occupancy of the same territory by two widely 
differing people. Whatever builds up amicable relations between 
the tenants in common tends to minimise the problem of their 
tenancy. Whatever tends to create friction between them makes 
their problem more acute.” * ‘The race problem needs to be con- 
ceived in vastly broader outlines than these. It is not a question 
of common tenancy of America. It is a question of common ten- 
ancy of a world which is smaller and more interdependent than 
America once was. But the conditions of the solution are the 
same,—‘‘ amicable relations.” ‘There can be no amicable relations 
without mutual respect and common justice and a discontinuance 
of the practice of levelling individual persons down or up to a 
group mass, irrespective of personal character and capacity. The 
variety of races is provided, perhaps, to afford us all a school in 
which to grow this larger human view of man, and to achieve the 
great ends in a world society which Mr. Zimmern conceives in 
the case of the British Empire can only be attained ‘ when the 
white populations have faced and conquered their hidden preju- 
dices and disdains and thus made possible not merely the régime 
of external justice and fair-play which has been the distinctive 
feature of British rule among ‘native peoples,’ but a deeper sym- 
pathy and understanding, of which mutual respect must be 
the basis.” 7° 

A broader knowledge of men and of the wide and significant 
characteristics of race expands our minds and interprets life and 


*F, A. Ross, quoted by Stone, The American Race Problem, p. 241. 

m 1010, D. 251. 

* New York Evening Post, Literary Review, March 8, 1924, art. on 
“Partnership vs. Domination.” 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 125 


history for us. Lyall points out “that India with its multiplicity 
of religions and its variety of political groups, is the best surviving 
specimen, on a large scale, of the ancient world of history, the 
Orbis veteribus notus.” 7% And the political and administrative 
problems associated with the modern race relations of Asia repro- 
duce many of the features of the Roman Empire. We under- 
stand those race mouldings and mergings in proportion as we 
understand our own today. 

The discontent of single races and the general unrest of all races 
are signs of life. Mr. Putnam Weale, who is among the colour- 
terrorists, sees clearly the inevitableness and, on the whole, the 
good of all racial aspirations and expansions. He deplores the 
failure of the western peoples to realise the significance of the 
universal spread of knowledge. 


“The world influence of this new growth,” he says, “and its 
really vast significance are still so utterly unappreciated that the 
political and social unrest which this new knowledge necessarily 
brings in its train (in China and India, just as much as in Portu- 
gal and Spain) is attributed to the masses becoming infected with 
anarchistic ideas—that is, to their blind devotion to destructive 
and not to constructive principles—whereas, if the truth be known, 
so far from such being a true statement of the case, since masses 
no more than individuals do not willingly court destruction, this 
commotion is merely the sign that knowledge—with its accom- 
panying conviction that political salvation lies within the grasp of 
all—is reaching the most widely-separated peoples.?> . . . When 
Asia is as universally educated as Europe is today, it will be time 
to know that almost every old assumption regarding this great 
region will have been quietly bridged over night; and thus it will 
come about that dawn will find those who have not prepared them- 
selves for such changes unable to adjust their views and still 
weakly talking of conspiracies and revolutions, when what they 
are witnessing will be nothing but the natural evolution of the 
human race.” 7° 


This is a necessary movement and a desirable goal. The whole 
race has a common interest in the success of the movement and 








*T yall, Asiatic Studies, First Series, p. ix. 
*® Weale, The Conflict of Colour, p. 14. *JIbid., p. 18. 


126 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the attainment of the goal. In this movement race servility is ever 
more and more clearly seen as an evil. The spirit of self- 
respecting and self-forgetful service should control every race and 
the spirit of servility be found in none. President Harding, in a 
letter to the Young People’s Commission of the Chicago Church 
Federation, expressed his disbelief in racial amalgamation as a 
solution of the race problem, but added, “ Partnership of the races 
in developing the highest aims of all humanity there must be, if 
humanity, not only here but everywhere, is to achieve the ends we 
have set forth.” °° 

The excesses to which some races carry the spirit of racial re- 
volt and self-assertion must not lead us to condemn the sense of 
race self-respect and the desire for racial personality. Mr. 
Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement in India may have erred, 


but their error was a mixture with good, as illustrated in a letter 
of Mr. Gandhi to a friend: 


“(1) There is no impassable barrier between East and West. 

(2) There is no such thing as Western or European civilisa- 
tion, but there is a modern civilisation which is purely material. 

“(3) The people of Europe, before they were touched by mod- 
ern civilisation, had much in common with the people of the East; 
anyhow the people of India, and even today Europeans who are 
not touched by modern civilisation, are far better able to mix with 
Indians than the offspring of that civilisation. 

“(4) It is not the British people who are ruling India, but it is 
modern civilisation, through its railways, telegraph, telephone, and 
almost every invention which has been claimed to be a triumph 
of civilisation. 

“(5) Bombay, Calcutta, and the other chief cities of India are 
the real plague spots. 

“(6) If British rule were replaced tomorrow by Indian rule 
based on modern methods, India would be no better, except that 
she would be able then to retain some of the money that is drained 
away to England; but then India would only become a second or 
fifth nation of Europe or America. 

“(7) East and West can only really meet when the West has 
thrown overboard modern civilisation, almost in its entirety. 
They can also seemingly meet when East has also adopted modern 


° Chicago Church Federation Bulletin, June, 1923. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 127 


civilisation, but that meeting would be an armed truce, even as it 
is between, say Germany and England, both of which nations are 
living in the Hall of Death in order to avoid being devoured the 
one by the other. 

“(12) India’s salvation consists in unlearning what she has 
learnt during the past fifty years. The railways, telegraphs, 
hospitals, lawyers, doctors and such like have all to go, and the 
so-called upper classes have to learn to live consciously and reli- 
giously and deliberately the simple peasant life, knowing it to be a 
life giving true happiness. : 

“If you agree with me, then it will be your duty to tell the revo- 
lutionaries and everybody else that the freedom they want, or 
think they want, is not to be obtained by killing people or doing 
violence, but by setting themselves right and by becoming and re- 
maining truly Indian. Then the British rulers will be servants 
and not masters. They will be trustees, and not tyrants, and they 
will live in perfect peace with the whole of the inhabitants of 
India. The future, therefore, lies not with the British race, but 
with the Indians themselves, and if they have sufficient self- 
abnegation and abstemiousness, they can make themselves free 
this very moment, and when we have arrived in India at the sim- 
plicity which is still ours largely and which was ours entirely until 
a few years ago, it will still be possible for the best Indians and 
the best Europeans to see one another throughout the length and 
breadth of India, and act as the leaven.” *4 


The impossibility of this program must not be allowed to hide 
the right spirit of longing for racial integrity and dignity. The 
whole world will be better for the peaceful effott of men to find a 
better balance between the forces of rest and the forces of change 
than we have thus far achieved. 

Variety of production and freedom of interchange are the 
sources of the world’s wealth and prosperity. The existence of a 
diversity of races adapted to the conditions and climates of all 
parts of the world and capable of producing all that can be pro- 
duced is an indispensable means to the widest human welfare. No 
reasonable person is able any longer to dispute the economic unity 
and interdependence of mankind, or to question that one of the 
most important tasks in the world is to bring the races into such 


a Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, pp. 134-137. 


128 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


right thoughts and relationships to one another as shall lead them 
to realise their mutual dependence and to work out in the fullest 
measure the benefits which God meant mankind to derive from it. 
Sociologists and economists increasingly concern themselves with 
this subject. “It must be remembered,” says Kidd, “that it is in 
an interchange of commodities between these regions (the Trop- 
ics) and those at present occupied by the European peoples that it 
is possible to have permanently operative, on the largest scale upon 
which it could be made operative in the world, the great natural 
principle underlying all trade, 7. e., that the interchange of prod- 
ucts between peoples and regions possessing different natural 
capacities tends to be mutually advantageous.” °? Kidd was con- 
cerned to expound what he conceived to be the right principle of 
race relationships in the matter of the development of the unde- 
veloped areas of the world. He deplored the gloomy spectacle of 
the nineteenth century, the domination by Europe under a wrong 
economic and social policy of a tropical area larger than Europe 
itself, a “railing off of immense regions in the tropics under the 
policy which has suggested their acquirement, regions tending, in 
the absence of white colonists, to simply revert to the type of 
States worked for gain, and slowly but surely surrounding them- 
selves with a wall of laws and tariffs operating in favour of the 
European Power in possession, to the exclusion of the interests of 


® The Control of the Tropics, p. 14. “The system of colonial exploita- 
tion has also failed to satisfy the large proportion of the dominant peoples, 
and the echoes of the discontent it produces among the dependent peoples 
ring from every colonised area of the earth. There is somewhere a remedy 
if there is a goal of succsss for society. It has not yet been found. It does 
not lie in the adoption of socialism or communism in dependent states, nor 
in the exclusion of foreign investments from countries where business or- 
ganisation, exploiting skill, and economic initiative are not developed among 
the indigenes. 

“The problem awaits solution in the growth of a new spirit among the 
exploiting peoples, a spirit which already shows signs of becoming domi- 
nant at no remote day, which shall provide for the dependent nation pos- 
sessing great natural wealth its political and economic opportunity to the 
limit of its growing capacity, at the same time affording the more highly . 
organised nation full opportunity—mutually profitable opportunity, to 
assist in the progressive labour of reducing the resources of the earth 
to the ae of mankind.”—(Priestley, The Mexican Nation, A History, 
p. xvii f. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 129 


the rest of the world.” 33 The impossibility of allowing great areas 
of the earth to lie fallow or unproductive was obvious to Kidd 
as it was obvious to every one in the days before the war when the 
consuming power of the nations seemed to threaten a great excess 
over their power of production and when the advantageous possi- 
bilities of world-wide trade seemed to be unlimited. These devel- 
opments have been retarded by the war and by its colossal 
destruction of human power both to produce and to consume, but 
this retardation has been offset in its effects upon the increase of 
the intimacy of race relations by the unprecedented increase of 
that intimacy in the associations, both military and economic, 
which the war brought about. 

We see far more clearly now than before the war the absolute 
indissolubleness of all human interests and the inevitable economic 
unity of the world. The world was aware of the fact before the 
war but it miscalculated both its strength and its weakness. It 
believed that the financial interdependence of the nations, “ the 
peace of Dives,” as Mr. Kipling described it, would hold the 
nations together. It was an empty faith. Not even certain finan- 
cial ruin can prevent war, and by itself it ought not to. On the 
other hand men had no conception of the indissolubleness of the 
commercial solidarity of mankind. They did not realise that the 
economic life of the world had become an organic unity and that 
if any nation should fall, all must feel the downpull. Even yet 
many men will not believe it. They talk in‘the old language of 
“trade war,” as though the ancient Shibboleths were any longer 
true. Trade war is trade suicide in a unified world. The nation 
that injures other nations in trade conflict simply injures itself. If 
a man gashes his leg with his hand, the hand shares in the loss and 
suffering. And itis so in humanity. In the development and dis- 
tribution of raw material, in the interchange of goods, in the use 
of credits, the interest of one is the interest of all and the interest 
of all is the interest of each.2* Any other doctrine and the prac- 


% The Control of the Tropics, p. 31 f. 

* “The pressing insistence by governments upon the selfish interests of 
their own nationals has not always proved the most beneficial policy. Rea- 
sonable nationalism as a basis for international relations ought surely to 


130 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


tice of it will bring their own judgment with them. The male- 
factors who are immediately guilty may figure up only profit but 
time and facts will reckon with their children. The truth is the 
only profitable economic theory and the truth is that the economic 
interest of humanity is indivisible. The war, which was the 
greatest economic schism ever known, has demonstrated this prin- 
ciple of unity. 

The white races need the products of the other races and they 
need equally the markets which the other races afford for the 
products of the white races. Originally it was the need of prod- 
ucts which led to exploration and trade and conquest. But in later 
years it became the need of markets, and Mr. Stoddard’s case for 
white supremacy includes its need and duty, if it can, to dominate 
in industry. 


“TI have showed,” he says, “the profound effect of the ‘ indus- 
trial revolution’ in furthering white world-supremacy, and I 
pointed out the tremendous advantages accruing to the white 
world from exploitation of undeveloped coloured lands and from 
exports of manufactured goods to coloured markets. The pro- 
digious wealth thereby amassed has been a prime cause of white 
prosperity, has buttressed the maintenance of white world- 
hegemony, and has made possible much of the prodigious increase 
of white population. 
comprehend that sovereign states should be friendly equals in the peaceful 
rivalry of expanding commerce; that developed communication and other 
facilities of modern life render nations economically dependent upon one 
another; that armed conflicts between great nations in modern times 
destroy for long periods the economic life of the victor as well as the con- 
quered; and that the foreign affairs of nations must be conducted with the 
knowledge that these truths cannot be ignored. . . . Men in high sta- 
tions and seeking high stations in public life too frequently resort to the 
appeal to racial differences to secure a temporary personal advantage. 
Perhaps we may be permitted to hope that as public opinion becomes in- 
formed in the field of international relations this method of seeking support 
will not gain the approval unfortunately too frequently granted in the 
past.”—From the American Ambassador’s address at the dinner in Tokyo, 
given by the Japan-American Society of Tokyo in honour of the members 
of the Japanese delegation to the Washington Disarmament Conference. 
Printed in the Korea Review, July, 1922. Ry 

% The effect of the decay of economic trust and solidarity within any one 
nation is a comprehensible picture of the equally certain and far most 
costly effects of the want of economic trust and solidarity between nations 
and races. (See International Conciliation, No. 185, April, 1923. “The 
Evolution of Soviet Russia,” p. 218 f.) 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 131 


“We realise what the loss of these advantages would mean. 
As a matter of fact, it would mean throughout the white world 
diminished prosperity, lessened political and military strength, and 
such relative economic and social stagnation as would depress 
national vigour and check population. It is even possible to vis- 
ualise a white world reverting to the condition of Europe in the 
fifteenth century—thrown back upon itself, on the defensive, and 
with a static rather than a progressive civilisation. Such condi- 
tions could, of course, occur only as the result of coloured military 
and industrial triumphs of the most sweeping character. But the 
possibility exists, nevertheless, as I shall endeavour to show.” *° 


And he proceeds to describe the disaster of an awakened industrial 
life among the “coloured” races which would threaten the indus- 
trial supremacy of the white world. 

In truth of course selling and buying are inseparable, for na- 
tions are able to purchase only as they can pay, and they can only 
pay not in money but in products or possessions of their own taken 
in exchange. A producing race selling for ever to non-producing 
races is an economic myth. The wealth of all races depends upon 
increased and continuous intercourse and exchange, from which 
all shall profit alike and in a real sense equally. To the extent that 
any race shares unequally, its power to continue the intercourse to 
the profit of itself and of the other races is impaired. ‘The world 
is made up of many races because economically this is a gain to all. 

Sometimes men dream that a national or world-society would 
be happier if it were simpler, more homogeneous and equalitarian, 
and free from the intricacies of economic organisation and inter- 
dependence which characterise our complicated world life with its 
diverse races and its delicate, highly organised, interlaced relation- 
ships. This dream may be examined and disproved by reason or 
it may be more easily dispelled by the test of life, both in individ- 
uals and in nations. What is the richest and happiest human life? 
Undoubtedly the life that is richest in its relationships and obliga- 
tions and ministries, not the life withdrawn from the great flowing 
streams and returned to the primitive and unrelated. Which is the 
richer and happier nation, Siam or Canada? Canada is beset with 


*® The Rising Tide of Colour, p. 240 f, 


132 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


all the problems of our modern world and is wrestling for freedom 
and progress amid all the forces and relationships of our complex 
modern life. Siam is free from all this. The Tolstoyan dream is 
come true there. Every man raises his own sustenance. His own 
paddy field yields rice enough for him and his family. A day or 
two suffices to build his house. A few fruit trees supply his 
luxuries. ‘The genial sun and a simple garment clothe him in 
comfort. He is delivered from all the highly wrought interde- 
pendence of life among us. And his reward is not happiness, but 
inertia. We may be sure that a world of many races, striving 
ceaselessly to realise themselves and their divinely appointed pur- 
poses and to work out a rich human life on the basis of their 
diverse varieties, associated in a common human family under one 
great father God, is a far nobler and more fruitful sort of world 
than a world of simplified uniformity. 

It is a further gain to humanity that in working out our inter- 
racial problems the races are under the necessity of being always 
on their guard morally lest they injure or retard each other. The 
danger of this is one of the evils of race. The new strength and 
virtue which come from overcoming this danger are among the 
blessings which flow from race. The East has its well-grounded 
fear of the spread of individualism with its evil features and of 
the impoverishment and exploitation of the other races by the 
white race. The white race can find in the most real temptation to 
which it has been exposed in this regard, and to which it has 
succumbed, a chance for the same kind of moral victory and en- 
largement which comes to the individual. 


“Why comes temptation 
But for man to meet and master 
And make crouch beneath his foot, 
And so be pedestaled 
In triumph? ” 


The supreme gain of the institution of race, however, and the 
divine purpose in its establishment according to St. John’s great 
conception, is the development, through special racial experience 
and achievement, of moral character-values which are to be the 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 133 


race’s contribution to the common human stock. Separation of 
race was certainly one of the conditions which made possible the 
development of religion among the Hebrews, of art among the 
Greeks and of law among the Romans. This religion, art and law 
are the common possession of humanity, even now. All the races 
are in a vast school. Out of it at the last they are to come into 
the one City of God bringing their treasures with them. This was 
St. John’s sublime vision: “ And the city hath no need of the sun, 
neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. And the races shall 
walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring 
their glory into it. And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut 
by day (for there is no night there) ; and they shall bring the glory 
and the honour of the races into it: and there shall in no wise 
enter into it any thing unclean, or he that maketh an abomination 
and a lie; but only they that are written in the Lamb’s book 
Gieitonss? 

Can we discern at all the values which God is working out for 
man in the experience and character of the races? The mission- 
ary movement has been studying this question with interest for a 
hundred years. It has approached it from two points of view. 
First, what are the qualities of character in the non-Christian 
races which can be welcomed and used in the universal Church of 
Christ which, as one body, is, in its ideal, the hope and promise and 
norm of a united humanity? Second, what values in Christianity 
are brought into clearer light or perhaps for the first time discov- 
ered by the application of the Gospel to the demands and capaci- 
ties of the non-Christian peoples? What have they to add not to 
Christ but to our apprehension of the fulness which is in Christ 
and which no one race can apprehend alone? 

1. The volume entitled Mankind and the Church is a collection 
of studies by missionary bishops of the Church of England, which 
they describe as “An Attempt to Estimate the Contribution of 
Great Races to the Fulness of the Church of God.” 

a. The Papuan race of the South Seas is dealt with as repre- 


Rev. X XI, 23-37; 


134 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


sentative of the primitive races. Its weaknesses are described as 
impurity, untruthfulness and callousness, and its virtues as gener- 
osity, domestic affection, patience and sense of justice, and the 
contribution of this child-race is held to be (1) consciousness of 
the unseen, (2) simplicity of faith and life, (3) corporate spirit, 
(4) faithfulness. 


“Ts there not,” concludes the Bishop of New Guinea, ‘a mes- 
sage from the Papuans to inform the white race? The world of 
modern life is a stern battleground of competition, and a ceaseless 
struggle for existence. The race tends to harden under its in- 
fluence. Then as it extends beyond white lands and reaches the 
rich islands of the Pacific with their balmy air and soft zephyrs, 
it passes as it were from the place of business to the playground 
and the nursery, and the hard nature, the unimpassioned spirit 
comes into contact with native races simple in habits, unselfish in 
heart and unassertive in disposition. It is as though Christ takes, 
as of old, a little child, and sets him in the midst and draws out 
lessons for the grown-up disciples. The passive virtues are won- 
derfully revealed in the Papuan who is growing in grace. In his 
gentleness, unselfishness, patience, good temper, this bright child 
of nature displays many of the elements that make up the Per- 
tect Lites ioe 


b. The African race is considered for the most part in Mankind 
and the Church in its characteristics when Christianised, and 
rather in the African and West Indian habitat than in the United 
States, and the emphasis is on the race’s contribution to the 
Church rather than to general social values.*? Archbishop Nut- 
tall, of the West Indies, concludes: 


“The subjects, the habits of thought, and the modes of action 
in which the Christianity of the Negro race will, to a consider- 
able degree, affect the sum-total of Christianity in the future, may 
be stated under the following heads: 

“(1) Realising the personality of God and the objectivity of 


*° Mankind and the Church, p. 68. 

® Sir H. H. Johnston declares, regarding the African race’s contribution, 
that it will be “an important quota to the whole sum of humanity, an ele- 
ment of soundness and stability in physical development and certain mental 
qualities which the perfected man can not afford to do without.”—Quoted 
in Christ and Human Need, p. 117. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 135 


divine manifestation. Cheerful acceptance of all providential ar- 
rangements as the acts of a wise and loving God. Old Testament 
religion in a Christian form. 

“(2) The emotional element generally in the presentation of 
truth, and the experimental realising of it. 

“(3) Musical tastes of a particular kind, and the emotional ex- 
pression of religious ideas in music, in song, and in worship. 

“(4) The social element. The sense of brotherhood in the 
Church. Taking an active personal share in the services of public 
worship, and in the actual work of the Church. Supporting the 
Church financially. Community in service and sympathy in af- 
fliction and in joy as well as sorrow. 

“(5) A strong appreciation of the authority of the Church, and 
recognition of the value of its disciplinary arrangements.” *° The 
last point rests on the conviction that “the Negro has a strong 
appreciation of authority of law. This manifests itself in civil 
affairs. He not only makes a loyal subject, but readily admits his 
responsibility to obey the law of the land. Even in things in which 
he fails to obey, he does not dispute the authority, but makes the 
best excuses he can for his non-obedience.”’ * 


Archbishop Nuttall quotes letters from three correspondents 
who view the question of the possibility of any racial contribution 
by the African in different lights: 


(a) “ The African has given no evidence of originating power 
in his nature. Their very language, ‘that storehouse of the ac- 
cumulated experience of mankind,’ is childish, inorganic, almost 
fluid. Their history, they have none, except what the child has: 
driven, directed, thought for by others, never able to take their 
faith into their own hands. If we apply the Socialist axiom, 
‘from him according to his capacity, to him according to his 
needs,’ we shall very quickly reach the conclusion that so vigour- 
ous, hardy, well-developed a plant as Christianity has nothing to 
receive from so exiguous a source as Africa, and, after all, as 
there are the higher tribes that give, so may there not be those who 
only take?” 

(b) “ While it (1. e., the Negro’s fatalistic trust in God) is 
soiled and obscured by ignorance, the:very sense of the belief will 
at times put it right across the path of development; but as igno- 
rance is replaced by knowledge, and as the belief is, so to speak, 











“© Mankind and the Church, p. 113. 
SLUG. jel 10, 


136 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


put into working order, we see more and more the advantage of 
its vital strength. Once let it cease to chain him down in fatal- 
ism, and it will be the noblest stay man can have. 

“To Christian practice, I think the Negro will bring a dis- . 
tinctively strong ability and tendency to recognise and appreciate 
the common human brotherhood, more frankly, generously, and 
naturally than ever before. For this he is prepared by the devel- 
opment of the emotional in his character, which enables him to 
seize great ideas though standing, for the present, somewhat in 
the way of his ability to work these out in every detail. It seems 
to me almost that he has been prepared for the realisation of the 
human brotherhood by his history, which has brought him experi- 
ences tending to wean him from strong and definite national feel- 
ing, which, admirably as it helps men at certain stages, is certainly 
likely to stand in the way when the movement is begun towards 
that universal community of all human beings to which it seems to 
me that Christianity points as the highest development of human 
government.” 

(c) “I find it impossible to believe that the race has nothing to 
contribute. I believe it has something, and will make its contri- 
bution if helped todo so. . . . I have concluded that the Negro 
race is providentially intended to emphasise an intuitive apprehen- 
sion of the supernatural, and the place of the emotional in the 
religious life. Individuals of the Negro race have been strong in 
reasoning out their faith in the verities of religion; but the super- 
natural is peculiarly immediate to the apprehension of the Negro 
mind. The supernatural is the atmosphere in which he lives, 
moves, and has his being. He has certainly the defect of his qual- 
ity in a very marked degree—he believes too much, accepts too 
readily things and facts as supernatural which are not, and multi- 
plies with a facile imagination beings to be adored and feared. He 
greatly needs to have this defect balanced by the reasonings of a 
more intellectual race, but not to be overdone; and the superior 
races need the Negro’s intuitive apprehension of the supernatural 
to save them from the mere deductions of a cultured reason, 
whose tendency is in the direction of a pure materialism. 

“On the second point, which I have named, I may briefly re- 
mark that as the intellectual, the emotional, and the practical in 
happy and harmonious combination are essential to a_ well- 
constructed and completed religious life, I see in no race whose 
characteristics | have studied the emotional lodged to anything 
like the degree in which it exists in the Negro. This, I am aware, 
has its drawbacks, its dangers. It often runs riot. It is often in 
religion regarded as an end in itself, and not the motive force to 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 1387 


impel the right action. It needs to be checked, controlled, and 
combined with the intellectual and the practical. But it has a dis- 
tinct religious value, and I think it is the Negro’s special mission 
to contribute this element.” 4” 


c. The racial characteristics of the Japanese, as described by 
Bishop Awdry, are 


“ versatility and power of imitation; absence of habitual tension 
of the mind and will, leading to an easy acquiescence and giving 
up of effort in face of temporary difficulties; and in close connec- 
tion with this an absence of despair, discontent or disgust at fail- 
ure or disappointment, leading to a ready resumption of steady 
work at the old task as soon as the difficulty is past; an almost 
childish curiosity and love of prettiness and of romance; intense 
patriotism and loyalty and obedience to law and custom; patient, 
uncomplaining endurance, except where an injustice, or rather an 
inequality or irregularity of treatment, is supposed; not a little 
suspiciousness behind a childlike simplicity ; very widespread nat- 
ural eloquence, coupled with diplomatic power of keeping a secret 
by word and bearing; an apparent lack of sensitiveness to pain, 
which is surprising when considered with their acute observation, 
accurate imitation, vivacity of mind, and almost exaggerated senti- 
ment for honour according to their national ideals, and love for 
beauty in flower, landscape, and feature. One would have sup- 
posed that these various forms of sensitiveness to pleasure could 
hardly have grown up without bringing a corresponding sensitive- 
ness to pain of every kind, but perhaps the key may lie in the fact 
that their ideals are conventional rather than spontaneous, and 
their courtesy has its roots in ceremonious custom rather than in 
sympathy; while their remarkable kindness to children and to 
other living creatures, unless some definite occasion leads them to 
an opposite line of conduct, seems rather to arise from natural 
happiness and an easy-going and kindly disposition, which likes 
to live in a happy world and sees no reason to interfere with other 
people’s whims and wishes, than to be connected in any way with 
the idea of duty. Some of these characteristics will appear contra- 
dictory. I can only say that they are national characteristics, and 
that they co-exist. . . . We in the West greatly overrate the 
importance of the individual as compared with the body of which 
he is a member ; we encourage self-seeking, because it is the most 
powerful inducement to energy; we separate the man as a unit, 


“ Tbid., pp. 130-133. 


138 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


because that develops his power of will and helps him to stand 
alone. Must we not also add, we think so much of accumulation 
of wealth as a chief element of power, that the qualities which 
tend to win in the race for wealth come to have a wholly fictitious 
value in our estimate of character? But exactly the opposite is 
the case in the Oriental, and perhaps especially in the Japanese. 
Peacefulness of life, not energy, 1s what he both enjoys and ad- 
mires. Self-assertion and pushing are to him the ugliest of vices. 
A profession of humility, of his own utter unimportance as com- 
pared with others, is the habit of his talk. Time is not regarded 
as money, and is unimportant in his eyes.” *° 


These words were written before the Russo-Japanese War. 
Bishop Awdry added these qualifications after that war: 


“The past ten years (since 1896), and especially the past three, 
have made a great change in this. The whole look of the common 
people is more alert than it was. They appear to be observing the 
things that pass before them with greater interest and more keen- 
ness. The lips, that used often to hang apart, are now generally 
closed. They began perceptibly to close in the early weeks of the 
Russian War. There is a far greater appearance both of decision 
and of sense of responsibility in face and bearing. Universal edu- 
cation has much to do with this, but the greatest educator has been 
the war.” . . . “Since the above was written the change in the 
Japanese is amazing. I will not say the advance, for in some 
respects I do not think it is an advance. Energy in trade, the 
value set on wealth, the association of accumulating capital with 
patriotism, the economy of time, the development of a more ex- 
pansive style of living, the wide extension of the sense of indi- 
vidual responsibility, and the dropping out from common talk of 
Shikata ga nai and Kamaimasen, are all conspicuous. Yet in these 
things, too, the lead is given to national thought by the emperor— 
the suggestion of what should be comes from above; and loyalty 
thus is part of the foundation of national money-making as well 
as of personal sacrifice.” 44 


The change which has taken place in Japanese character * is 
itself an evidence of the inevitableness of the racial interchange 


Miva. pp. 141 £2) 15104, 
“ Ibid., pp. 141, 154. 
See Gulick, The Evolution of the Japanese. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 139 


which is going on in the world and which is affecting the white 
races as much as any others. The old Japan also had been deeply 
affected by the Chinese and the Koreans but for some centuries 
before Perry came it had been isolated and at ease. Bishop 
Awdry comments on this: “ This leisure, this self-contained con- 
dition, and this total absence of foreign competition, are elements 
in the development of a clever nation which have gone to make 
the Japanese what they are found in the present generation: in 
some ways better, in some ways worse, but in almost all ways 
different from other nations. Industrious, yet not strenuous; a 
nation of artists, yet not reaching after large or high ideals; re- 
markably obedient to law and authority, yet ready for every 
change ; the pupils of the most stolid and immovable people of the 
world, yet themselves vivacious and volatile, romantic and fan- 
tastic in their ideas; they certainly offer a most interesting field 
for conjecture as to what they will become now that they travel in 
all countries, revel in every kind of new idea and invention, and 
enter with zest into every branch of that world-wide competition 
which is the most striking feature of our time.’’ *® 

The contributions of the Japanese race, Bishop Awdry is con- 
vinced, are fundamental: 


“Three broad characteristics stand out, distinct yet intimately 
connected with each other—characteristics which belong to the 
very foundations of Japanese ideals, and to the very ground tints 
of the characters of those who aim at following those ideals; 
characteristics, too, which put to shame the coarseness and selfish- 
ness and self-assertion, the ugliness and disproportions and even 
vices and vicious tendencies which, under the names of being 
practical, efficient, and self-respecting, seem to pose as part of the 
popular ideals of the West. These must be pruned and trained if 
the truth and the beauty and the goodness of Christ are to be fully 
exhibited in His Church on earth. They will not be pruned till 
the Anglo-Saxon learns to see, as the Eastern already sees, that 
they are blotches and deformities upon a grand ideal and a noble 
character. 

“Tf, then, the Japanese, or those among them who exhibit the 
best features of the national type, will continue true through all 


“Tbid., p. 160 f. 


140 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


changes to the highest traditions of the race, we think they may 
contribute in three directions to that through which the Church as 
a whole may attain to the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ— 

“1. Cheerful patience, neither fatalistic nor despairing. 

“2. A proper estimate of wealth in comparison with other 
things. 

“3. The self-subordination of the individual to the interests of 
the whole body.” #7 


The danger of today is that the Japanese under the pressure of 
race associations with the West will not contribute these qualities 
to us and to all races, but will surrender instead to the very char- 
acteristics which they ought to help us to surmount. Likewise in 
the appreciation and preservation of beauty Japan, and indeed all 
of Asia, is in peril of surrendering to inferior ideals instead of 
standing fast by racial artistic characteristics and guarding them 
as a universal trust. We may recall two testimonies. Baron 
Hubner says: 


“The Japanese are wonderful lovers of nature. In Europe a 
feeling for beauty has to be developed by education. Our peas- 
ants will talk to you of the fertility of the soil, of the abundance 
of water so useful for their mills, of the value of their woods, but 
not of the picturesque charms of the country. They are not per- 
haps entirely insensible to them, but if they do feel them it is ina 
vague undefined sort of way for which they would be puzzled to 
account. It is not so with the Japanese labourer. With him the 
sense of beauty is innate.” #5 


And a more recent writer points out the passion for perfection of 
detail which exists together with the more general appreciation 
of beauty : 

Ree iy 

oe Coupled with an inherent esthetic, which the Tokugawa in- 
fluences fostered into exquisite taste, and linked with the Oriental 
habit of patient industry, Japanese thoroughness has produced the 
most minutely perfect specimens of art that have ever delighted 


RiLOta), Dice. 
“Quoted in Robinson, The Character of Christ and Non-Christian 
Races, p. 181. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 141 


the world. An artist will chisel at a little block of ivory for years 
—not to reap pecuniary reward, but to satisfy his passion toward 
perfection—until at length you hold in your hands a tiny figure 
which is a microcosm in itself, and will yield to the microscope 
alone the completeness of its dainty perfections.” * 


The world cannot afford to lose these things which were com- 
mitted to Japan’s trust. 

d. The essay on the Chinese by Bishop Hoare deals with the 
steadfastness, diligence, practical sense and solidarity of Chinese 
character and the evidence of the value of these qualities already 
afforded in the Christian Church in China, and its energy, its 
martyr-spirit, its will for unity. Commercially and intellectually 
the Chinese can hold their own with any race. 


“No merchant in the Fast can afford to despise the Chinaman 
as aman of commerce. His industry, his ability, his reliability, all 
combine to make him a formidable rival to any European com- 
petitor; his power of combination for purposes of trade, and the 
manner in which he holds to his fellow-countrymen as against the 
foreigner, enables him, in his own land at any rate, to dictate 
terms to the European. And in other respects it is, I think, im- 
possible to say that the Chinaman is inferior intellectually to the 
European. His method of education is different from ours, it has 
been very different for centuries, and it is the fashion to speak 
with contempt of his methods; but whether it be as the result of, 
or in spite of, his methods, the intellectual power of the present 
generation of Chinese is, without gainsaying; very remarkable. It 
would be interesting to hear how an advocate for the principle of 
heredity would explain the fact that a race whose educational 
training has been for centuries purely classical; whose standard 
of excellence, by which all candidates for office have been judged, 
consisted in the power of writing artificial themes in hieroglyphic 
characters, can at once turn to Western subjects and methods, and 
show themselves the equals of those whose ancestors have long 
given their minds to such subjects.” °° 


Chinese character and race influence are still unsolved prob- 
lems. Some of the ancient fundamental characteristics of the 


* Tbid., p. 182, quoted from Young Japan, by S. A. Scherer, p. 154. 
° Mankind and the Church, p. 243. 


142 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Japanese were Chinese characteristics also. Indeed the models of 
Japan were borrowed from China. It remains to be seen whether 
China can swing through the transformation which is demanded 
of her as Japan has done. But if a race is to be credited with its 
ideals and the moral standards of its best men the Chinese race, 
as a race, has as much to give racially as any race not excluding 
the white races, for the Chinese gave Confucianism to Asia while 
Christianity was given to the white race. And it is hard to exag- 
gerate the significance of Confucianism, which is to be truly con- 
sidered not as a religion, but as a racial moral accumulation. Dr. 
Faber’s summary of its points of contact with Christianity shows 
how far the Chinese race made its way: 


1. Divine Providence over human affairs and visitation of 
human sins are acknowledged. 

2. An invisible world above and around this material life is 
firmly believed in. 

3. Moral law is positively set forth as binding equally on men 
and spirits. 

4. Prayer is offered in public calamities as well as for private 
needs, in the belief that it is heard and answered by spiritual 
powers. 

5. Sacrifices are regarded as necessary to come into closer con- 
tact with the spiritual world. 

6. Miracles are believed in as the natural efficacy of spirits. 

7. Moral duty is taught, and its obligations in the five human 
relations. 

8. Cultivation of the moral character is regarded as the basis 
for the successful carrying out of the social duties. 

9. Virtue is valued above riches and honour. 

10. In case of failure in political and social life, moral self- 
culture and practice of humanity are to be attended to even more 
carefully than before. 

11. Sincerity and truth are shown to be the only basis for self- 
culture and the reform of the world. 

12. The Golden Rule is proclaimed as the principle of moral 
conduct among our fellow-men. 

13. Every ruler should carry out a benevolent government for 
the benefit of the people. 


That many of these points are fully practised need hardly be 


—~ ee 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 143 


asserted. The remarkable thing is that they exist, for this differ- 
entiates the Chinese from every other race. They bring with them 
reverence for the rule of reason and respect for moral institutions, 
and an ideal of a world order of peace and concord.*4 

Indeed what race but the Chinese answers the description of 
Prof. Flinders Petrie in an article searching for some hope for 
modern civilisation : 


“Tf we were able to mould the future, the reasonable course 
would be to look around for a race which would best counteract 
the deficiencies of ourselves, and to favour a mixture in isolation. 
We need to remedy the unrest and excitability of the present 
population by producing a more stolid and hard-working people ; 
to counteract the lack of security by a sense of permanence and 
commercial morality; to hinder the prevalent waste by the devel- 
opment of a frugal and saving habit; to keep our knowledge to its 
right uses by a peace-loving people who do not glorify fighting ; 
to turn our intellectual frivolity into a love of solid reading and 
literature. We need a race less sensitive in nerves, though not less 
perceptive in thought; and, above all, it must be a race which 
commands the respect and affection of those who have lived 
among it and know it best. I leave it to the reader to think 
what cultivated race of the present world would fulfill these 
conditions.” ®? 


e. The Mohammedan races with which Bishop Lefroy deals in 
Mankind and the Church are not cognate races at all, but never- 
theless in a sense it is right to group the North Indian and West 
Asiatic peoples whose characteristics have found expression in 
Islam. The fundamental conviction of these races is the Power 
and Unity of God, 


“the conviction that, amidst all the chaos and confusion and 
disorders of the world which so fearfully obscure it, there is, 
nevertheless, an ultimate Will, resistless, supreme, and that man 
is called to be a minister of that Will, to promulgate it, to compel 
—if necessary by very simple and elementary means indeed— 


See Millard’s Review of the Far East, March 8, 1919, art. by Chen 
Huan-chang, “A Universal Government as the Confucian Ideal of Per- 
fect Peace.” 

Yale Review, Jan., 1922, art. on “ The Outlook for Civilisation.” 


144 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


obedience to that Will—this it was which welded the Moham- 
medan hosts into so invincible an engine of conquest, which in- 
spired them with a spirit of military subordination and discipline, 
as well as with a contempt of death, such as has probably never 
been surpassed in any system—this it 1s which, so far as it is still 
in any true sense operative amongst Mohammedans, gives at once 
that backbone of character, that firmness of determination and 
strength of will, and also that uncomplaining patience and sub- 
mission in the presence of the bitterest misfortune, which char- 
acterise and adorn the best adherents of the creed. 

“That the Unity of God is a necessary ingredient in any such 
conception of His reality and power as this—made necessary by 
some of the most fundamental laws of human thought—is ob- 
vious, and this truth of unity is the one which has been most 
clearly grasped in thought by Mohammedan theologians them- 
selves, and most earnestly and continuously insisted on. But 
deeper even than the unity, goes the reality of the existence of 
God—of His presence and His power—and this I put unhesitat- 
ingly as the fundamental truth of Mohammedanism. 

“Tt can hardly be questioned that we ourselves urgently need 
a clearer grasp of this truth at the present time. Thoughtful 
minds in the West have been occupied with the discovery of those 
secondary causes which are the methods of God’s working in the 
world. Their researches have been met with such marvelous 
success that men have sometimes failed to retain the true sense of 
proportion, and in the fascinating disclosures of the methods of 
the operation of God’s Will have been in danger of losing sight 
of the presence and activity of that Will itself. We therefore 
greatly need to be recalled to that deepest note of Mohammedan 
teaching, and to hear again that ultimate declaration of the ex- 
istence of God, ‘I am that Iam.’ This, then, is the first contri- 
bution which I believe the Mohammedan races will bring to the 
Christian Church as they are themselves gathered into its fold.” 5% 


A second contribution of these races is their insistence on the 
theory, however they have misread it, that it is the knowledge of 
God which lies at the base of human life and gives strength to 
human society, that this strength is due to religious truth rather 
than to any maxims of practical morality or any principles of 
politics, and that there is a positive objective reality to this truth 
and to all truth. Mohammedanism is one of the most terrible, 


8 Mankind and the Church, p. 284 f. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 145 


sterilising and destructive of all religions. Wherever it has gone 
it has either found a desert or in the long run made one.** But 
the races which begot this religion and which have borne it have 
some great truths and some qualities of life which they need to 
bring that they may be rectified and employed by man. 

f. With regard to the Indian races, Mr. Lowes Dickinson has 
written a very discouraging essay in which, in the matter of art 
and esthetic contributions, he groups China and Japan with India. 
He speaks of the effect of contact with the West on Indian arts 
and crafts and goes on from this to deeper things: 


“There can be no doubt that these generally have declined, if 
not perished ; and the immediate cause is the competition of West- 
ern wares. This is most evident in textiles, where factory-made 
goods, mainly imported, but partly also manufactured in India, 
are killing the old domestic industries. But the decline seems to 
be general; I, at any rate, saw nowhere any modern products, 
whether in brasswork, wood-carving, embroidery, or enamel, 
which seemed to me to have any merit. To attribute this decline, 
however, merely to the competition of Western wares is not to go 
to the bottom of the matter. For the question remains, Why are 
Western wares preferred? The answer that they are cheaper is 
sufficient, no doubt, in the case of goods used by the mass of the 
people ; cheapness, if you are poor, will override, in the East as in 
the West, all other considerations. But there is something more 
than this. Some Indian arts, that of painting, for instance, that of 
architecture on a grand scale, and the arts allied to it, always de- 
pended in India on the patronage of princes. These princes still 
exist and are still wealthy. But they prefer to patronise bad 
Western art. Why? Obviously because they have no real taste, 
and the prestige of the West overrides everything else in their 
mind. They want to have houses and clothes as like as possible 
to those of Europeans. And this raises the genera! question, to 
me a very interesting one, whether taste in all Oriental countries 
has not been for generations merely a habit; whether people went 
on making and using beautiful things merely because their fathers 
and grandfathers had done so; and as soon as anything new is 
offered, run to that, not only for the sake of cheapness, but for 
the sake of novelty and snobbery. My observations in China and 


5 See the best apology for it in Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mo- 
hammedanism, and Ameer Ali, Syed, The Spirit of Islam. 


146 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


in Japan, as well as in India, suggested to me very forcibly that 
this is the truth—that the arts of the East have long been dead, 
long before contact with the West, so far as active and intelligent 
taste is concerned, and that their collapse before the Western in- 
vasion is due not only to the cheapness of Western goods, but to 
an actual preference for them on other grounds, or, at any rate, 
an absence of preference for the more beautiful native products. 
Indians attribute the decline of their arts and crafts, as they at- 
tribute everything else, to the malign activities of the British Gov- 
ernment. I believe they do not go deep enough. They should 
attribute it to the lack of effective and positive taste among their 
own leaders. 

“To sum up, I find in India a peculiar civilisation, antithetical 
to that of the West. I find a religious consciousness which ne- 
gates what is really the religious postulate of the West, that life 
in time is the real and important life; and a social institution. 
caste, which negates the implicit assumption of the West, that the 
desirable thing is equality of opportunity. I find also that in Indiu 
the contact between East and West assumes a form peculiarly 
acute and irritating, owing to the fact that India has been con- 
quered and is governed by a Western Power. But the contact, 
none the less, is having the same disintegrating effect it produces 
in other Eastern countries. And I do not doubt that sooner or 
later, whether or no British rule maintains itself, the religious con- 
sciousness of India will be transformed by the methods and re- 
sults of positive science, and its institutions by the economic 
influences of industrialism. In this transformation something, of 
course, will be lost. But my own opinion is that India has more to 
gain and less to lose by contact with the West than any other 
Eastern country.” 55 


Christians believe that the West has in Christianity not a racial 
possession but a universal trust for all men far transcending any- 
thing the other peoples have to give the West. Whether the other 
religions have anything to give to Christianity is the point still to 
be considered. But that the Indian races have something to con- 
tribute to the common life of man one can not doubt. Mr. 
Gokhale names the characteristics which he believes India still 
retains and “ which once placed us in the van of the world’s 
civilisation—the depth of our spirituality, our serene outlook on 


° An Essay on the Civilisations of India, China and Japan, pp. 38-41. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 147 


life, our conception of domestic and social duty.” Sir Richard 
Temple described Indian characteristics as he conceived them some 
years ago: “ For the upper and middle classes, domestic affection, 
munificence, tenacious adherence to custom, veneration with awe 
leading to superstition, love of external nature, and inclination for 
abstract meditation, mental acuteness and subtlety, litigiousness, 
shrewdness of observation; for the humbler classes, temperance, 
patience, docility, charitableness to the indigent, endurance, forti- 
tude under disaster, and industry.” °® But the outstanding char- 
acteristic of India is, no doubt, the religiousness of the whole of 
life. As Mr. Bernard Lucas says: 


“In the West we are accustomed to speak of a certain phase of 
life as the religious life, and to draw sharp distinctions between 
what we call sacred and secular. In India, on the other hand, life 
is essentially religious, and in the strictest sense of the word there 
is nothing which can properly be called secular at all. Religion is 
all-pervading as the atmosphere itself; it penetrates into every 
nook and corner of life, so that the Hindu can never escape from 
its influence. It presides over his birth, fixes his name, determines 
his education, settles his calling, arranges his marriage, orders 
every detail of his family and social life, and controls his destiny 
through all time. Not only so, but it gives colour and shape to 
the external world in which he lives and moves, Animate and in- 
animate nature, rivers and hills, trees and plants, rocks and stones, 
everything in the animal and vegetable kingdom, are all alike ex- 
isting in this all-pervading religious atmosphere, and present them- 
selves to his mind through this all-embracing medium. It is this 
fact perhaps more than anything else which makes the Hindu an 
insoluble enigma to the man of the West. Its subtle influence is 
encountered at every turn, its tint is present in every landscape, its 
pungent essence can be detected everywhere. It has to be reck- 
oned with in the India Office, in the Legislative Council, in the 
Government Office, in market and school, in the largest town as 
well as in the smallest hamlet.” °? 


If only the Indian races might bring to the life of all men this 
ideal of the domination of the whole life by religion and if that 
religion were Christ ! 


% Quoted by Beach, India and Christian Opportunity, p. 81. 
7 Quoted by Sherwood Eddy, India Awakening, p. 28. 


148 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


2. We have been considering the contribution which it may be 
hoped other races are to make to the fulness of human life and 
character. The Christian conviction, of course, is that all this is 
simply raw material awaiting the cleansing and unifying power of 
Christianity, whose mission it is to purify all that is unholy, to 
illumine all that is dark, to raise up all that is low, to redeem all 
life and to bind it to the uses of the Kingdom of Christ. History 
is full of the work which Christianity has wrought in this long 
and still continuing process. And the traces of it are written all 
Over our common institutions. The names of the days of the week 
show the power of Christianity to take up and strip of their old 
unworthiness the very names of heathen gods and put them to use 
in Christian service. The Church even calls the most sacred and 
significant of all its celebrations, the celebration of the central fact 
of the Resurrection of Christ, by the name of a heathen goddess, 
Fastra. There are those who have deprecated the course of the 
Christian Church in this respect. The Friends decline to use the 
once heathen names of the days and months. And Mr. Bertrand 
Russell reverses the usual criticism of Christian missions as ruth- 
lessly destructive, and reproaches the education given in mission 
schools in China because “it makes the students more conservative 
in purely Chinese matters than the young men and women who 
have had a modern education under Chinese auspices. Europeans 
in general,” he adds, “ are more conservative about China than the 
modern Chinese are and they tend to convey their conservatism to 
their pupils.” °§ Apart from these students of mission colleges 
who were taught to revere their country and to be “ conservative 
in purely Chinese matters,’’ Mr. Russell met only socialists among 
the young students. ‘“ To a man they are socialists, as are most of 
the best among the Chinese teachers.” °® If Mr. Russell’s criti- 
cism of the mission schools is accurate it is greatly to their credit. 
They are doing just what Christianity has always sought to do, to 
redeem and conserve. The white race will do its duty toward 
other races to the extent that it becomes Christian and seeks to 


*® Russell, The Problem of China, p. 263. 
1 ADT DE eo. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 149 


help all races to “abhor that which is evil and to cleave to that 
which is good.” 

But our final question is not what Christianity or any race so 
far as it is Christian, can do to help other races to realise their 
true character and mission, but how will the contact of Christian- 
ity with other races bring out its latent fulness more clearly and 
richly? We need to consider the reaction of the contact of Chris- 
tianity with the non-Christian religions and peoples, not upon 
Christianity, but upon our apprehension and conceptions of Chris- 
tianity. No one of us believes that we have the whole of Christian 
truth. If we believed that we had the whole of this truth that 
would be the surrender of our conviction that Christianity is the 
final and absolute religion. How is it possible for us in a small 
fragment of the long corporate experience of humanity, a few 
races in a mere generation of time, to claim that we have gathered 
all the truth of the inexhaustible religion into our own personal 
comprehension and experience? We know that we have not, by 
reason of the primary and fundamental conviction we hold of the 
value of Christianity. We see this also as we lay Christianity over 
against the non-Christian religions of the world. We discover, as 
we do so, truths in Christianity which we had not discerned 
before, or truths in a glory, in a magnitude, that we had not 
imagined.®° It is to be stated clearly that we look for nothing 
from the non-Christian religions to be added to the Christianity 
of the New Testament. Every truth in these religions is already 
in Christianity, and it is there proportioned and balanced as it is 
not in any of the other religions. But we have much to learn of 
our own religion. It reaches infinitely beyond our present com- 
prehension of it. The thought and life of other peoples has much 
to teach us of the riches of our own faith; but not one single 
aspect of truth can be named which these other religions are able 
to contribute to the religion of the New Testament. 

But it may be asked, is not the Oriental consciousness to enlarge 
and enrich our comparatively pinched and practical conceptions? 
But is there such a thing as an Oriental consciousness? A West- 


© Edinburgh Missionary Congress Report, Vol. IV., p. 325, 


150 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ern woman has been until Gandhi arose, the chief preacher of such 
a consciousness in India, and the whole conception of such a con- 
sciousness as a great force to be dealt with in philosophy and 
religion has been produced and nourished in the West. There is 
doubtless a rough utility in thus setting the East off against the 
West, but both Fast and West are divided within themselves by 
differences of race and tradition as great as separate them from 
one another. The Chinese consciousness is nearer to Western 
materialism and the Hindu consciousness to Western idealism 
than the Chinese and Hindu consciousness are to each other. The 
phrase, the Oriental consciousness, serves a more or less useful 
purpose, but it does not define a source of new religious knowl- 
edge or promise a correction of Christianity. 

Nevertheless, we have much to learn from others. Some think 
otherwise. Professor Ross says, “The Western culture now ex- 
tends to so much of the human race that it can find no other equal 
culture to mate with,’ and he speaks of the demonstration of 
sociology of “the eccentric and barren character of the Oriental 
civilisation. Equipped with that incomparable instrument, the 
scientific method, the Western intellect will probably go its way 
with little heed to what the East offers it.”’®' But others differ. 
“The West has yet much to learn in the school of Vedanta, so 
ancient and so meditative,” says one Christian writer.®* And Mr. 
Slater says: ‘The West has to learn from the East, and the East 
from the West. The questions raised by the Vedanta will have to 
pass into Christianity if the best minds of India are to embrace it; 
and the Church of the ‘farther East’ will doubtless contribute 
something to the thought of Christendom of the science of the 
soul, and of the omnipentrativeness and immanence of Deity.” © 
These are sober and true words. ‘They speak of the inadequacy 
of our thought, not of the inadequacy of Christianity. It is not 
Christianity that needs help or enlargement. It is we. And it is 
only by their acceptance of Christianity that other races can give 
us their help. We do not primarily need a larger intellectual com- 


* Ross, Social Psychology, p. 356. 


®N. MacNicol, Hibbert Journal, October, 1908. 
% Slater, The Higher Hinduism, p. 291. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 151 


prehension of the Gospel. Indeed, we cannot get it by mere specu- 
lation, by comparison of opinions, by new codifications of truth, or 
new efforts to state the life and will of God and the nature and end 
of our souls in words. We can only get it by more experience, 
more life, by the actual occupation of humanity by God. It is in 
the experience of Christianity that help is needed. It is in our 
living it, in our getting the Gospel embodied in our life. It is thus 
that the other races are to help us. And it is the races that are to 
help us. It is the great racial qualities which are to be the contri- 
bution of these peoples to the Spirit of God for His use as the 
materials of the Kingdom of God, the incarnation of the Gospel in 
the life of mankind. The non-Christian peoples are far better 
than the evils of their religions. Even the sanctification of error 
and wrong in the non-Christian religions has not extirpated from 
these peoples the likeness of God, which will not be effaced, and 
that original capacity for Him, for the indwelling of His life, for 
the execution of His will of righteousness, which is to be their 
contribution to the universal Church. It is from these races that 
the new goods of Christianity are to come. To the extent to which 
the religions of the different races have really supported the strong 
national qualities of these peoples, which they are to bring to the 
enlargement of our interpretation of the Gospel by the en- 
largement of our experience of God in Christ, they have made 
a contribution, but to the extent that they have weakened them 
they have increased the measure of the encumbrance they have 
been on the life of the world, or will be if they obstruct the 
triumph of Christianity. But it is the character of the various 
races which Christianity wants, to redeem and use them. And we 
will cherish the hope, though as yet it is only a hope, which Dr. 
Gibson sets forth in his Mission Problems and Mission Methods 
in South China, that through the qualities which the races are to 
bring into the Church, the Church may pass forward into the 
Gospel which is perfect and complete and needing only to be un- 
derstood and accepted in its divine fulness: 


“A review of earlier Church history would show how the vary- 
ing types of different races have contributed to the development of 


152 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Christian theology... The Greek mind contributed to it its specu- 
lative liberality, its profound philosophical insight, its sense of the 
essential dignity of human nature. The Roman type of mental 
development contributed, on the other hand, the strong sense of 
law out of which has arisen the whole region of what is called 
forensic theology. It also imposed on Christian thought definite- 
ness, and the sense of limits which prevented it from running wild 
in a too free speculation. In later times the subtlety, thorough- 
ness, and clearness of the French intellectual type, when working 
at its best, impressed themselves through Calvin upon our West- 
ern theology. When time has allowed for their development, may 
we not expect the working of similar forces in the Churches which 
are growing up on our great mission fields? In India you have a 
mind naturally religious, highly speculative and metaphysical, and 
moving habitually under the influence of sudden heats of religious 
emotion. In China, on the contrary, you have a national tempera- 
ment with little natural sympathy with the more subtle aspects of 
religious thought, but strongly inclined to what is ethical and 
practical, having a firm grasp of reality, and presenting a singular 
combination of solidity and plasticity. Where our theology is still 
one-sided and incomplete, may we not look for large contributions 
to it in days to come from the independent thought and life of 
Christian men in our mission fields; and may we not look forward 
to the attainment, as one of the ample rewards of our mission 
work, of the fuller and more rounded theology for which the 
Church has waited so long? So may come at last the healing of 
those divisions by which she has been torn and weakened through- 
out her chequered history. 

“When to Jewish fervour, Greek passion, Roman restraint, 
French acuteness, German depth, English breadth, Scottish in- 
tensity, and American alertness, are added Indian religious 
subtlety, with Chinese ethical sagacity—all baptised into the One 
Spirit—then we may reach at last the fuller theology, worthy of 
the world-wide hospitalities of the kingdom of heaven, and setting 
forth more nearly the very thoughts of God.” ®* 


Dr. Farquhar takes up this vision from the point of view of 
India, 


“How much will be possible when the whole world acknowl- 
edges, even with meagre intelligence, the Lordship of Christ? 


“Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, pp. 
282-286. 


THE GOOD AND GAIN OF RACE DISTINCTION 153 


Aspects of His example and of His message which are latent in 
the West will in India find free and full expression. May not 
Christ’s attitude to poverty find glorious illumination, His deep 
sense of the meaning and the sacredness of society be exhibited to 
the world by a people set free from Caste indeed, yet reaping its 
fruits as never before, and the prayer and communion with His 
Father to which Jesus so often gave His nights be turned to price- 
less account by the descendants of the rishis and yogis? Aspects 
of Christ which the hard practical West has failed to utilise will 
prove fruitful beyond our dreams in the Christian experience of 
the richly dowered Hindu race.” © 


It is quite possible that hopes such as these are too high and 
that, as many students hold, the course of human races is now a 
course of deterioration.°® From the Christian point of view we 
should hold that only the purpose and grace of God can lift races 
or men,®’ that He provided the institution of race for great and 
beneficent ends, that the failure of those ends can result only from 
the disobedience and faithlessness of man, that if we will accept 
and follow His will for men and for races and for all racial and 
human relationships we shall find racial differences not an evil 
but an immeasurable blessing and the means of the richer and 
better world, pictured in St. John’s vision of the City full of the 
glory and honour of the nations. 


*® Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism, p. 63 f. 

* See Adams, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, Grant, The 
Passing of the Great Race. 

8 See Warneck, The Living Christ and Dying Heathenism, pp. 147-156. 


IV 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 


perversion. It is with race as it is with sex. What God 

evidently intended for noble and enriching use has been 
often degraded to baseness and evil. Race prejudice and race 
strife have taken the place of race respect and race service and 
have poisoned the life of mankind. ‘I am convinced myself,” 
says Mr. H. G. Wells, “that there is no more evil thing in this 
present world than race prejudice, none at all! I write deliber- 
ately—it is the worst single thing in life now. It justifies and 
holds together more baseness, cruelty and abomination than any 
other sort of error in the world.” 

It is impossible to believe that men and races were created or 
are born with an instinctive prejudice against one another. All 
over the world the children of different races play together and 
grow up together with no more manifestation of antagonism than 
marks the children of any one race. Mr. Stone regards racial 
antipathy as congenital, a natural contrariety or repugnancy of 
qualities. 


ge best of human institutions are capable of the worst 


5 


“To quote the Century Dictionary,” says he, “antipathy ‘ ex- 
presses most of constitutional feeling and least of volition’; ‘ it is 
a dislike that seems constitutional toward persons, things, conduct, 
etc.; hence it involves a dislike for which sometimes no good 
reason can be given.’ J would define racial antipathy, then, as a 
natural contrariety, repugnancy of qualities, or incompatibility, 
between individuals or groups which are sufficiently differentiated 
to constitute what, for want of a more exact term, we call races. 
What is more important is that it involves an instinctive feeling 
of dislike, distaste, or repugnance, for which sometimes no good 
reason can be given. Friction is defined primarily as a ‘lack of 
harmony,’ or a ‘ mutual irritation.’ In the case of races it is ac- 
centuated by antipathy.” } 


1The American Race Problem, p. 212. 
154 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 155 


But we do not believe that prejudice and antipathy are inherited. 
They come with education and the pressure of the social environ- ~ 
ment. Everywhere race prejudice is one of the most pervasive 
elements in child training. Obedience is enforced by threats of 
what the supposed ogres of disliked races will do. I heard a 
young Jewish mother intimidating a three-year-old son on a rail- 
road train a few days ago by calling out threateningly, “ Come 
here at once or a nigger will seize you.’ And such vicious train- 
ing is common in many races with regard to many other races. 
“TI grew up with race prejudice,” writes Mirza Saeed Khan of 
his boyhood days as a Mohammedan Kurd in Senneh, Persia, 
“but I believe it was acquired, due to bad teaching. We were 
taught that the Franks and the Russians were God-hating people, 
so bitterly God-hating that they made brims for their hats in order 
not to see the heavens, the work of God’s hand, lest they think of 
Him. And I remember how I used to kill the red ants because 
they were Russians and spared the black ones.” 

And how does race antipathy become a part of the social ideals 
which control the educational process? Some think that it is be-. 
cause fear enters in. Professor Park, as it seems to us, over- 
states the impersonal forces making for race friction, but he 
points out truly one chief origin of race friction not in colour or 
race characteristics but in fear. Colour and other race character- 
istics are merely markers. ‘The causal factor, he holds, is fear. 


“It has been assumed,” says he, “that the prejudice which 
blinds the people of one race to the virtues of another and leads 
them to exaggerate that other’s faults is in the nature of a misun- 
derstanding which further knowledge will dispel. This is so far 
from true that it would be more exact to say that our racial mis- 
understandings are merely the expression of our racial antipathies. 
Behind these antipathies are deep-seated, vital, and instinctive 
impulses. Racial antipathies represent the collision of invisible 
forces, the clash of interests, dimly felt but not yet clearly per- 
ceived. They are present in every situation where the funda- 
mental interests of races and peoples are not yet regulated by some 
law, custom, or any other modus vivendi which commands the 
assent and the mutual support of both parties. We hate people 
because we fear them, because our interests, as we understand 


156 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


them at any rate, run counter to theirs. On the other hand, good 
will is founded in the long run upon co-operation. The extension 
of our so-called altruistic sentiments is made possible only by the 
organisation of our otherwise conflicting interests and by the ex- 
tension of the machinery of co-operation and social control. 

“Race prejudice may be regarded as a spontaneous, more or 
less instinctive, defense-reaction, the practical effect of which is to 
restrict free competition between races. Its importance as a 
social function is due to the fact that free competition, particularly 
between people with different standards of living, seems to be, if 
not the original source, at least the stimulus to which race preju- 
dice is the response. 

“From this point of view we may regard caste, or even slavery, 
as one of those accommodations through which the race problem 
found a natural solution. Caste, by relegating the subject race to 
an inferior status, gives to each race at any rate a monopoly of its 
own tasks. When this status is accepted by the subject people, as 
is the case where the caste or slavery systems become fully estab- 
lished, racial competition ceases and racial animosity tends to 
disappear.” ? 


15 Re, aeaegt 


ee ei 
« The destruction of competition and the acceptance of subserv- 
iency, however, Professor Park proceeds to point out, are eco- 
nomically unsound and socially inefficient. And race isolation 
which, it might be thought, would remove the occasion of fear is 
likewise economically impracticable and is itself “at once a cause 
and an effect of race prejudice. It is a vicious circle—isolation, 
prejudice ; prejudice, isolation.” 
Canon Gairdner, after a long study of the problem of race con- 
tacts in Egypt, believes that racial antipathy is the product of 
group self-interest. 





“If the organising of goodwill as between man and man is diffi- 
cult enough, that between group and group might well seem to be 
impossible; and for this reason:—most of these groups propose 
to themselves no other and no higher aim than their own welfare: 
and consequently are in immediate and absolute antagonism with 
any other group whose aim is or seems to be in conflict with 
theirs, and whose wellbeing does or seems to diminish their own. 
When, owing to geographical proximity, this antagonism goes on, 


* Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Study of Sociology, p. 62 f. 


‘ THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 157 


generation and century after generation and century, a permanent 
antipathy is produced which distorts all vision.” 3 


As between East and West, there are many who hold that there 
is a conflict of temper and ideals which unavoidably leads to racial 
antagonism. The Earl of Ronaldshay, ex-Governor of Bengal, 
set forth this view in a paper on the causes of India’s unrest, in 
which he described the fear of India and the destruction of its 
civilisation by Western civilisation as ‘“‘ this potent source of racial 
animosity.’ + ‘ The source of unrest,” he said, “ which seems to 
be one of fundamental importance, is the heat generated by the 
clash of two conflicting ideals, the offspring of two different out- 
looks upon the universe, those of the East and the West respect- 
ively,’ and he quotes Mr. Gandhi as saying, “The tendency of 
Indian civilisation is to elevate the moral being, that of Western 
civilisation is to propagate immorality. The latter is Godless, the 
former is based on a belief in God.” This view of the funda- 
mental conflict between the Eastern and Western races is alto- 
gether too common. No one has set it forth more intelligently and 
more persuasively than Meredith Townsend, editor of the Friend 
of India in Calcutta, and later of the London Spectator, in Asia 
and Europe. But in the first place, there is no united East nor 
any united West. There is no united India. The clash of ideals 
of which the Earl of Ronaldshay spoke is a clash in India quite~ 
as truly as between India and the West. In the second place, as 
Professor Reinsch argued, “there is no irrepressible conflict be- 
tween Oriental and Western civilisation. On the contrary, they 
are complementary to each other, not necessarily competitive.” ® 
Nevertheless, the apparent contradiction of this complementary 
character of the various sections of human life, the forms of real 
conflict, the political controversies, the economic exploitation, the 
well grounded dread of men of “the flood of carnality ” which 
Western influence has too often augmented, have produced fears 
in Asia which have strengthened race antipathies. 


® Orient and Occident, Feb. 1, 1924. 
* See whole paper in Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, March 23, 1923. 
* Reinsch, Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East, p. 35. 


158 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Mr. Stone also, although he believes in fundamental, immovable 
racial characteristics, recognises that the great source of race 
friction is fear, and that “the fear and effect of numbers ” is one 
of the determining influences at the foundation of all race rela- 
tions. When one race is in a distinct minority or is inoffensive in 
its power of competition, there will be no fear and in consequence 
no race friction. The friction is inevitable, Mr. Stone believes, 
whenever one race feels that its interest is imperiled, as it will 
when it is outnumbered and is unable to dictate the status of the 
other race. 


“The practical attitude of one race or nation toward another,” 
he says, “is determined by motives of self-interest, or instincts of 
self-preservation, upon the part of the one which is able to control 
and dictate the terms and conditions of contact between the two. 
It matters not whether the races concerned be white and Negro in 
Mississippi today, white and Negro or Indian in Massachusetts 
yesterday, white and Mongolian in California tomorrow. And, 
furthermore, it matters precious little what the so-called ‘ enlight- 
ened sentiment’ of the world outside may be on the subject im-- 
mediately at issue. I am not just now concerned with questions 
of sentiment. JI am endeavouring to offer you a practical consid- 
eration of practical affairs. Nor does it make much difference 
whether the place of such contact be the United States or Egypt, 
Cuba or the Philippines, Australia, or India, Japan or Santo 
Domingo. The rule which I state here, call it ‘ cold-blooded’ if 
you please, has not often been violated in the past; it is not likely 
to be in the future. . . . The only exception to this rule is in 
the case of nations or races between whom there exists either 
sufficient identity of blood and institutions or such a great dis- 
parity of numbers or strength that the controlling party has no 
grounds upon which to base even an apprehension of untoward 
consequences from unrestricted or unconditional intercourse, or 
from any specific or general attitude it may assume toward the 
weaker. Here the stronger may, if it see fit, give full play to poli- 
cies wholly unselfish and altruistic, or be governed by them in so 
far as it may be inclined. I lay it down as a fact which cannot 
successfully be challenged, that the relations between the white 
and Negro races in every state in the Union have been, and are 
now, controlled by considerations ultimately governed by the 
factor of the relative numbers of the two.” ® 


®The American Race Problem, pp. 54 f., 57. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 159 


A great deal that is written today on the race problem confirms 
this view that the pressure and fear of numbers is at the bottom 
of much race antagonism. ‘The school which is seeking to arouse 
the white race to protect its isolation and to assert its dominance 
proceeds on the conviction that the coloured races are rapidly out- 
distancing the white races in their increase of numbers. Mr. 
Stoddard estimated the population of the world in 1914 at “ five 
hundred and fifty million whites, five hundred million yellows, 
four hundred fifty million browns, one hundred and fifty millions 
blacks and fifty million ‘red’ yellows and unclassified strains.” 
Professor East, however, in Mankind at the Crossroads, amends 
these figures to over seven hundred and ten million whites, five 
hundred and ten million yellows, four hundred and twenty million 
browns and one hundred and ten million blacks, a total of seven- 
teen hundred and fifty millions, as of 1916. Mr. Stoddard reck- 
oned that the blacks were increasing more than twice as fast and 
the yellows, and the browns a third again as fast as the whites. 
So that the coloured races were making an annual increase of 12,- 
655,000 compared with an annual increase of 4,780,000 on the part 
of the whites. Professor East has a different story to tell. He 
finds the European whites increasing from more than twice to 
nearly five times as fast as the other races. The annual increase 
of white Europeans is seven million, eight hundred thousand, com- 
pared to an annual increase for all the others combined of three 
million, six hundred thousand. The European whites at the pres- 
ent rate of increase would double in fifty-eight years; while it 
would take the browns two hundred and seventy-eight years to 
double and the yellows two hundred and thirty-two years. So 
before 1950, unless some radical and relatively permanent over- 
turn of world affairs occurs, the white race will have a true ma- 
jority in the world. In this view, on the score of numbers as well 
as on other grounds, it would seem that the coloured races have 
most to fear. 

No doubt it is inter-racial fear which accounts for the intensity 
of race feeling in sections of the world where one race is in so 
great a minority that it dreads and condemns any slightest recog- 


160 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


nition of race equality. When the Rev. C. F. Andrews, an English 
missionary, closely associated with Gandhi and Tagore, “ inno- 
cently took a little Sikh child in East Africa in his arms, a member 
of his own English community said to him, ‘ We could have killed 
you when we saw you there with that black child in your arms. 
That sort of thing is not done here!’”* That this is a reaction of 
fear and not of reason, or if of reason, then of a reason curiously 
but familiarly inconsistent, is shown by the fact that a white child 
would be entrusted without demur to black arms in Africa or 
India or the United States. 

Race fear, race antipathy, race prejudice and race consciousness 
are inter-related conceptions, but fear and antipathy and preju- 
dice are not necessary consequences of race consciousness. Mr. 
Stephenson thinks that they are. 


“Race distinctions are not based fundamentally upon the feel- 
ing by one race of superiority to the other, but are rather the out- 
growth of race consciousness. If Negroes were in every way 
equally advanced with white people, race distinctions would prob- 
ably be even more pronounced than now; because, in addition to 
physical differentiation, there would be the rivalry of equally 
matched races. ‘Thus, the widespread prejudice entertained by 
Gentiles toward Jews, resulting in actual, if not legal, distinctions, 
is due, not to any notion that Jews are intellectually or morally 
inferior to any people, but to a race consciousness which each 
possesses.” § 


But neither personal nor national consciousness leads of itself to 
prejudice. Race consciousness per se, just like individual con- 
sciousness, would lead to social enrichment and satisfaction if not 
prevented or poisoned by other elements. 

Professor Dewey thinks that racial prejudice springs from dis- 
like of what is strange. 


“ The facts suggest that an antipathy to what is strange (origi- 
nating probably in the self-protective tendencies of animal life) is 


*The Continent, May 17, 1923, art. by Sherwood Eddy, “India Calls to 
Brotherhood.” 
* Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, p. 353 f. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 161 


the original basis of what now takes the form of race prejudice. 
The phenomenon is seen in the anti-foreign waves which have 
swept over China at different times. It 1s equally seen in the atti- 
tude of the earlier immigrants to the United States toward later 
comers. The Irish were among the first to feel the effects: then as 
they became fairly established and the older stock became used 
to them and no longer regarded them as intruders, the animosity 
was transferred to southern Europeans, especially to the Italians; 
later the immigrants from eastern and southeastern Europe, be- 
came the suspected and feared party. And strikingly enough it 
has usually been the group which had previously been the object 
of hostile feelings which has been most active in opposing the 
newcomers, conferring upon them contemptuous nicknames if not 
actually abusing them.” ® 


But the prejudice can be found where the strangeness is least and 
may be wanting where the strangeness is greatest. Elsewhere in 
this same article Dewey indicates deeper and more intricate causes 
and lifts the whole question above the plane of race: 


“The question is not primarily one of race at all, but of the ad- 
justment of different types of culture to one another. These dif- 
ferences of culture include not only differences of speech, manner, 
religion, moral codes, each one of which is pregnant with causes 
of misunderstanding and friction, but also differences of political 
organisation and habits and national rivalries. They include also 
economic and industrial differences involving differences in planes 
or standards of daily life on the part of the masses. What is 
called race prejudice is not then the cause of friction. It is rather 
a product and sign of the friction which is generated by these 
other deep-seated causes. Like other social effects it becomes in 
turn a cause of further consequences; especially it intensifies and 
exasperates the other sources of friction. But the cultivated per- 
son who thinks that what is termed racial friction will disappear 
if other persons only attain his own state of enlightenment and 
emancipation from prejudice misjudges the whole situation. Such 
a state of mind is important for it is favourable to bringing about 
more fundamental changes in political and economic relationships. 
But except as it takes effect in modifying social organisations it 
will always prove impotent in any crisis, to prevent racial friction. 


° The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, March, 1922, art. by 
John Dewey, “Racial Prejudice and Friction.” 


162 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“For, I repeat, this friction is not primarily racial. Race is a 
sign, a symbol, which bears much the same relation to the actual 
forces which cause friction that a national flag bears to the emo- 
tions and activities which it symbolises, condensing them into visi- 
ble and tangible form. . . . The various parts of the world are 
now in such close contact with one another that it is very difficult 
for the world to endure in a condition of stable equilibrium as long 
as there are rival political cultures and aims operating within it. 
Universal disarmament would be a more powerful factor in sooth- 
ing race prejudice than any amount of enlightenment of cultivated 
persons can be. Economic competition between countries, the race 
for raw materials and markets, would still, however, exist. With 
free immigration of the labouring classes habituated to long hours 
of work, to low standards of living, and to abstinence in expendi- 
tures, the economic cause of friction would continue. . . . Only 
by profound economic readjustments can racial friction be done 
away with.” 1° 


Much race antipathy, obviously does spring from fear and it 
also produces fear, because of the motive of racial self-interest in 
the race which is supposed to be endangered unless some other 
race is held down and shows itself willing to submit to a position 
of subjugation. The superior race dislikes the inferior unless the 
inferior will accept its inferior status and consent to serve. ‘The 
inferior race dislikes the superior because it resents its pretensions 
and unequal demands. Whichever is numerically or economically 
weaker fears the strength of the other. 

Fear is not the only evil of such racial relations. Hate is a yet 
more lamentable fruitage flowing from racial prejudice, and itself 
producing prejudice. In our contemporary world, motivated 
propaganda has more than once deliberately sought to foment 
racial hate. The war literature made us familiar with the organ- 
ised campaign of education in Germany, extending over many 
years and designed to fill Germany with hate of Great Britain, 
and the calculated and government-controlled activities of false- 
hood and malice on the part of other nations. No other hate 
propaganda has ever wrought such havoc as this one, but there 
have been and are others. What feelings but race distrust and 


” Ibid., pp. 23-24. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 163 


enmity could be produced by Kipling’s stab at Russia in “ The 
Bear that Walks Like a Man”? And where could more despic- 
able appeals to race hatred be found than in the New York 
American of July 23, 1916, in such a set of verses as this “ Anti- 
Japanese Hymn of Hate”: 


Look Out! CALIFORNIA! BEWARE! 


They tell us that Uncle Sam 

Would lie down like a lamb, 

But he doesn’t understand the situation. 

He says war talk must cease 

While he feeds the dove of peace 

But he doesn’t know the Peril to the Nation. 
But something’s going to happen 

That will shake things up, perhaps, 

If we don’t start to clean out the Japs. 


Chorus: 


They lurk upon thy shores, California! 

They watch behind thy doors, California! 

They’re a hundred thousand strong, 

And they won’t be hiding long ; 

There’s nothing that the dastards would not dare! 

They are soldiers to a man, with the schemes of old Japan 
Look out! California! Beware! 


There’s a murmur that affirms 

We're brothers to the worms, 

That serve us in a meek and lowly manner ; 
But while we watch and wait 

They’re inside the Golden Gate! 

Oh! God! Save the Star Spangled Banner! 
With the Army and the Navy 

And the White House full of gaps 

And our Coast running over with Japs! 


They’ve battleships, they say, 

On Magdalena Bay! 

Uncle Sam, won’t you listen when we warn you? 
They meet us with a smile 

But they’re working all the while, 


164 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


And they’re waiting just to steal our California! 
So just keep your eyes on Togo 

With his pocket full of maps 

For we’ve found out we can’t trust the Japs! 


And the same paper featured, in an editorial page, an article by a 
British writer, which purported to advocate good will and to avert 
war, but which bore the title, “ Millions of Americans hate and 
despise England, Millions of Britishers loathe the United States,” 
and which began with the paragraph, “There is no use blinking 
the fact that millions of Americans either hate or despise England, 
and that millions of Britishers likewise loathe the United States 
and most of the things it stands for. The war with Germany 
started with peace conditions just like that.” 

Many books of our day assume or seek to prove that such 
hatred of race for race is the actual dominating feeling of the 
races at the present time, and that whatever humane theory or 
Christian sentiment may say, race prejudice and conflict are the 
inexorable and inevitable facts. Mr. Weale construes the present 
world situation as “ The Conflict of Colour” and Mr. Stoddard’s 
view is sufficiently set forth in the titles to his books, “ The 
Rising Tide of Colour,’ “The Revolt against Civilisation,” and 
“The New World of Islam.” 


“In the modern world,” says Mr. Weale, “it is in the debatable 
regions—where what may be called a permanent settlement of 
frontier-lines has not yet been brought about—that there will be 
a constant swaying to and fro, most probably accompanied by 
bloody wars, until density of population, and the consequent strug- 
gle for existence, either blots out nationality or makes its claims 
undeniable. . . . The main racial contest—a contest which 
must be conducted not only along frontiers, but in the heart of 
densely-populated countries as well—can only be between the old 
antagonists, Europe and Asia. . . . This struggle, however, 
will approach slowly and methodically, and not rapidly and dra- 
matically as past struggles have done. Every day will bring 
nearer the inevitable settling day. . . . At the same time that 
there is this large clash of conflicting ideals looming up—this clash 
of two necessarily different civilisations, which is to be the mighty 
problem of the future—another racial struggle of a very different 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 165 


nature has already begun. This question is far more subtle and 
already considerably complicates the other problems. Briefly, a 
struggle has begun between the white man and all the other men 
of the world to decide whether non-white men—that is, yellow 
men, or brown men, or black men,—may or may not invade the 
white man’s countries in order there to gain their livelihood. 

It is well to understand at once that it is made peculiarly 
hazardous for the white man, not because he is not able to fight it 
in the face of all difficulties, not because it is beyond his strength 
to check it, but because in almost every part of the Asiatic and 
African worlds, he is still playing his old-world role of conqueror, 
and ruling over vast masses of the world’s coloured population 
virtually by force. That is the real reason why this struggle must 
in the end prove highly dangerous. On the one hand, the white 
man has begun to refuse to allow coloured men of any description 
to enter his countries in large numbers; on the other hand, he con- 
tinues to rule as conqueror immense areas of the world, the soil 
of which nourishes autochthonous populations having little or 
nothing in common with him, and therefore regarding his domin- 
ion with a natural and growing aversion.” ++ 


Mr. Stoddard apotheosises western civilisation and then inter- 
prets the great confused struggle of mankind, with wisdom and 
folly, good and evil commingled, toward a better human order 
and a truer brotherhood, as an indiscriminate assault of the under- 
man, 1. e., the inferior man, upon all efficiency and merit and order. 
It is only too easy to select one set of quotations, none too care- 
fully appraised, and set them in inaccurate historic and economic 
perspective and build them as an inadequate foundation under a 
pre-determined thesis, which is erroneous as principle and fal- 
lacious as fact. It is quite true that there is a great racial mal- 
adjustment in the world and that the so-called “ coloured” races 
are awakening and are unwilling longer to accept the place of in- 
feriority and inequality assigned to them in the past by other races. 


“The race questions in the United States,” declares Mr. Jaime 
C. Gil, “are manufactured by individuals who thereby derive 
some pleasure or profit. Some of these individuals have been in- 
dustriously and profitably endeavouring to persuade the people of 





“The Conflict of Colour, pp. 93, 98 f. 


166 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the United States that this nation’s peculiar concept of race is to 
be the salvation of the world. Nothing could be farther from the 
truth. There is no Rising Tide of Colour in this world, much as 
some people’s groundless fears and other people’s baseless ambi- 
tions have risen on a book that fools read from cover to cover and 
sensible people read by looking at the title. There is a rising tide 
of common sense that is sweeping over all the land from Calais 
to Vladivostock and, in its ebb, crosses the Suez Canal and flows 
from Cairo to the Cape. A similar tide is constantly ebbing and 
flowing from the Rio Grande across the Panama Canal to Pata- 
gonia. All along the path of these tides, distinctions ‘in law or 
fact’ are becoming applied, or are already applied, to all men or 
to none. Sundry islands and continental areas may rise high and 
dry above these tides, only to find themselves bound with the 
bonds of their own liberty, the liberty that is there open to all of 
one set of people and none of another set.” *” 


“There is slowly arising,” says Du Bois, “not only a curiously 
strong brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world, but the 
common cause of the darker races against the intolerable assump- 
tions and insults of Europeans has already found expression. 
Most men in this world are coloured. A belief in humanity means 
a belief in coloured men. ‘The future world will, in all reasonable 
probability, be what coloured men make it. In order for this col- 
oured world to come into its heritage, must the earth again be 
drenched in the blood of fighting, snarling human beasts, or will 
Reason and Good Will prevail?” 7° 

But the mood of the common people of the world is not a mood 
of hatred, of violence against prosperity, of assault upon the past. 
The world is not Bolshevist. The people of all races are friendly- 
spirited, good-willed, eager only to find a way out of the political 
and economic entanglements of our time into the new day of uni- 
versal peace and brotherhood. It is one of the evils of race that 
its frictions and antipathies, whatever their cause or ground, can 
be used to keep men apart, to feed their suspicions and fears, to 
foster race pride or despair and to pervert the enriching diversity 
of humanity into discord and hate. 


“Gil, America, the Peacemaker, p. 53 f. 
* Du Bois, The Negro, p. 242. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 167 


We must not pass into the very error which we are deprecating, 
namely, of seeing the evils of the race problem in too narrow a 
setting or in too near a perspective. It is, after all, no modern 
problem of East and West or Black and White. One can see the 
whole problem with its good and evil in miniature in a land like 
India. Here are many races, conquered and conquerors, natives 
and invaders, Dravidians and Aryans, ignorant and intelligent, 
“inferior”? and “superior.” Here, long ago, race and colour 
divisions hardened into caste, and some races accepted the status 
of subjection and yielded to others a position of privilege close 
to deity. Other races like the Mahrattas refused to acquiesce 
. in the assumption of the Brahmans. On the whole, however, 
race distinctions have been given in India the fullest support 
and sanction. India is a picture of human society where men 
have sought to solve the problem of race relations in almost 
all the ways recommended by the race inequalitarians. It is 
almost amusing to note in India the identical arguments 
made for caste which are made for the isolation and suprem- 
acy of the “ Nordic” race. Dr. Farquhar sums up the Indian 
contention : 


“To the Hindu caste is the stronghold of purity, manners, 
culture, and of the whole religious heritage of the race. The 
high-caste man thinks of himself as one of a small number of 
pure-blooded, cultured, religious men amidst such vast numbers 
of unclean, vulgar, vicious people that the light is in grave danger 
of extinction. A*neas-like, he bears through seething crowds of 
foes his ancestral heritage, bound by every duty to pass it on 
intact to those who follow him. Only in caste can he preserve 
from wrong the sacred trust of his fathers, that deposit of custom, 
practice, and law which regulates his religion, morals, and habits. 
It is this heritage which has made him what he is. In every act 
he does and every thought he thinks he is conscious of its in- 
fluence. Each caste has its own distinct tradition. Amongst 
Brahmans to this day the standard of cleanliness, speech, and be- 
haviour is far higher than in other castes. It is impossible to 
simulate the Brahman. A hundred trifles would betray the pre- 
tender. Feeling runs still deeper with regard to the rites of 
religion, the great doctrines of the faith, and the Vedanta. How 
can these survive if caste be tampered with? To allow these to be 


168 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


shared by low-born, ignorant men would be to court not only con- 
tamination but destruction.” ‘4 


The results of India’s treatment of the race problem are there 
for the world to study. The Christian solution has nowhere been 
adequately tried. It is demonstrated that the other solutions are 
futile and the utter breakdown of the supposed racial reconcili- 
ation of Hindus and Mohammedans has shown the inefficiency of 
the forms of racial adjustment in these religions and in these races 
to bridge the race gulfs and to unite men. India realises the fail- 
ure of the caste system, which is simply race inequalitarianism 
carried logically through, as a solution of the race question. Here 
are the deliberate judgments of India’s modern leaders. The first 
opinion is by the Hon. Sir K. G. Gupta, a member of the India 
Council: “The caste system had served useful purposes in the past, 
but it had not now a single redeeming feature. If the Hindu was 
again to lift his head and take part in the great work of nation- 
building, he must revert to the original Aryan type and demolish 
the barriers dividing the community.” Mr. Shridhar Ketkar, in 
his work on Caste, says, “ The result is disunion of the people, the 
worst type the world has ever seen.’’ This testimony is from Lala 


Lajpat Rai, the Punjabi leader: “Caste . . . is a disgrace to 
our humanity, our sense of justice, and our feeling of social 
affinity, . . . a standing blot on our social organisation.” The 


editor of The Indian Social Reformer speaks of caste as “ the 
great monster we have to kill,” and declares it to be utterly op- 
posed to the modern idea of good citizenship. Such opinions 
might be multiplied indefinitely. Let us add only the words of 
Rabindranath Tagore, the author of ‘“ Gitanjali,’” who “is by 
far the greatest literary force at present in Bengal, and whose 
serious spirit and balanced character give his opinions very great 
weight ”: 


“This immutable and all-pervading system of caste has no 


“The Crown of Hinduism, p. 208. See India Census 1911, General Re- 
port, Chap. XI, pp. 365-395, “ Caste, Tribe and Race,” and especially India 
Say 1901, General Report, Chap. XI, pp. 489-557, “Caste, Tribe and 

BCE 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE Rie est 


doubt imposed a mechanical uniformity upon the people, but it 
has, at the same time, kept their different sections inflexibly and 
unalterably separate, with the consequent loss of all power of 
adaptation and readjustment to new conditions and forces. The 
regeneration of the Indian people, to my mind, directly and per- 
haps solely depends upon the removal of this condition of caste. 
When I realise the hypnotic hold which this gigantic system of 
cold-blooded repression has taken on the minds of our people, 
whose social body it has so completely entwined in its endless coils 
that the free expression of manhood, even under the direct neces- 
sity, has become almost an impossibility, the only remedy that sug- 
gects itself to me is to educate them out of their trance. . 
Now has come the time when India must begin to build, and dead 
arrangement must gradually give way to living construction, or- 
ganised growth. . . . If to break up the feudal system and 
the tyrannical conventionalism of the medizval Church, which 
had outraged the healthier instincts of humanity, Europe needed 
the thought-impulse of the Renaissance and the fierce struggle of 
the Reformation, do we not need in a greater degree an over- 
whelming influx of higher social ideas before a place can be found 
for true political thinking? Must we not have that greater vision 
of humanity which will impel us to shake off the fetters that 
shackle our individual life before we begin to dream of national 
trecdom 4° 


And in Nationalism, Tagore points out the futility of setting up 
caste distinctions in the form of barriers which sever races. 


“In her caste regulations India recognised differences, but not 
the mutability which is the law of life. In trying to avoid col- 
lisions she set up boundaries of immovable walls, thus giving to 
her numerous races the negative benefit of peace and order, but 
not the positive opportunity of expansion and movement. She 
accepted nature where it produces diversity, but ignored it where 
it used that diversity for its world-game of infinite permutations 
and combinations. She treated life in all truth where it is mani- 
fold, but insulted it where it is ever moving. Therefore Life 
departed from her social system and in its place she is worshipping 
with all ceremony the magnificent cage of countless compartments 
that she has manufactured.” 1° 


*® Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism, p. 175 f, 
* Tagore, Nationalism, p. 137. 


170 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


The evils of fixed race stratification have been adequately dem- 
onstrated in India.” 

Race prejudice has been charged with the responsibility of 
hindering the development of the science of language. 


“Not till that word Barbarism was struck out of the dictionary 
of mankind and replaced by brother,’ says Max Muller, “can we 
look for the first beginnings of our science. This change was ef- 
fected by Christianity. . . . Humanity is a word which you 
look for in vain in Plato or Aristotle; the idea of mankind as one 
family, as the children of one God, is an idea of Christian growth. 

: When people had been taught to look upon all men as 
brethren, then, and then only, did the variety of human speech 
present itself as a problem that called for solution in the eyes of 
thoughtful observers; and I therefore date the real beginning of 
the science of language from the day of Pentecost.” *® 


Professor Muller hardly meant that the idea of humanity was 
not found in Greek or Latin thought. It was there, but it was not 
made effective, as it was, though still in such imperfect measure, 
under the influence of Christianity. 

Race prejudice leads to partisan and embittered misreadings of 
history. The conflicting accounts of the Reconstruction era in the 
South and of the origin and results of the Fifteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution illustrate the effect of racial sentiments on the 
interpretation of historical and political movements. The parti- 
sans of particular racial views or interests constantly read into 
events a deliberate purpose when there was none, but where tend- 
encies operated in which men passively acquiesced with no con- 
scious racial motive. Du Bois furnishes an illustration of this tend- 
ency to read racial prejudice into history when the developments 
were not due to any intentional race discrimination: ‘“ Negroes 
in Africa, the West Indies, and America were to be forced to work 
by land monopoly, taxation, and little or no education. In this 
way a docile industrial class working for low wages, and not in- 


“The Missionary Review of the World, Jan., 1923, art. “India in the 
Melting Pot,” p. 40. 


* Muller, Lectures on the Science of Language, 1st Series, p. 118. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 171 


telligent enough to unite in labour unions, was to be developed.” 19 
The movement he is describing was too big and human for delib- 
erate racial manipulation. It was a movement of social masses. 

Race prejudice impeded for centuries the coming of the modern 
organisation of society and it hinders today the development of 
needed forms of world organisation. In its best forms, the oppo- 
sition to a world association of nations and races, rests upon the 
sense of racial dissimilarity and the fear of men that they are not 
sufficiently kindred to be bound together in the responsibilities of 
common interest and action. Mr. Lloyd George spoke of the mis- 
fortune of race disruption at the Conference of the Prime Min- 
isters and Representatives of the United Kingdom, the Dominions 
and India held in London in the summer of 1921. “No greater 
calamity,” he said, “could overtake the world than any further 
accentuation of the world’s divisions upon the lines of race. The 
British Empire has done signal service to humanity in bridging 
those divisions in the past; the loyalty of the King Emperor’s 
Asiatic peoples is the proof. ‘To depart from that policy, to fail 
in that duty, would not only greatly increase the dangers of inter- 
national war; it would divide the British Empire against itself. 
Our foreign policy can never range itself in any sense upon the 
differences of race and civilisation between East and West. It 
would be fatal to the Empire.” If it would be fatal to the Empire, 
can it be helpful to the world? 

One of the worst effects of inter-racial relations has been the 
economic exploitation and the moral abuse of the weaker races. 
The races of the South Seas and of Africa have been among the 
chief sufferers. The picture in Herman Melville’s Typee of the 
scene on his ship in the harbour of Nukuheva in the Marquesas 
Islands in 1842 is too true an account of much of the early contact 
of the white race with the primitive peoples: 


“Our ship was now wholly given up to every species of riot 
and debauchery. The grossest licentiousness and the most shame- 
ful inebriety prevailed, with occasional and but short-lived inter- 
ruptions, through the whole period of her stay. Alas for the poor 


The Negro, p. 237. 


172 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


savages when exposed to the influence of these polluting examples. 
Unsophisticated and confiding, they are easily led into every vice, 
and humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted 
upon them by their European civilisers. Thrice happy are they 
who, inhabiting some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the 
ocean, have never been brought into contact with the white man.” 


In American Diplomacy in the Orient, the Hon. John W. Foster, 
Secretary of State under President Harrison, tells of the struggle 
of the Hawaiian Islands against liquor and vice. Honolulu had 
been a brothel for visiting ships until, under missionary influence, 
the Hawaiians sought to abolish licentiousness and intemperance. 
“This strictness,” says Mr. Foster, “interfered not only with the 
depraved habits of the vicious but with the profits of many trad- 
ers.” For a time an armed vessel of the American Navy overrode 
the Hawaiian authorities and insisted that the vessel should enjoy 
the ancient privilege of unlimited immorality.2° Contact with the 
white race introduced among many of these people destructive 
diseases never known before. 

It is not too much to say that the early contacts of the white 
races with the other races were generally pitched on a selfish and 
immoral level. As Hobson says: 


“Every European nation in its early dealings with backward 
peoples frankly looked upon them, not as customers, but as pos- 
sessors of possible treasures the worth of which they did not 
know, and which must be got, if possible by any peaceful means. 
but otherwise by force. . . . The goods we sell to the natives 
of these countries are largely of the most detrimental kinds and 
of the most inferior quality. This has always been the case. A 
Report to the English Council of Trade as early as 1698 upon 
the trade with Madagascar and the East Indies named ‘liquor, 
arms, and gunpowder,’ as the chief articles of trade. Recent re- 
ports of our trade with East and Central Africa indicate that a 
considerable proportion of the trade is of the same degrading 
character, supplemented by the cheapest and lowest grades of tex- 
tile and metal wares. Such an import trade, largely appealing to 
the crudest wants of savage or semi-civilised natives, is fraught 
with manifest dangers, physical and moral. The liquor traffic, in 
particular, carried on by traders of several European nations in 





Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, pp. 115-118. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 173 


various parts of Africa, is a crime against civilisation, only second 
to the slave trade of earlier days. But equally pernicious in its 
effect upon the native peoples is a large portion of the export 
trade organised by white men in tropical countries of Africa and 
South America for the rapid and reckless exploitation of the nat- 
ural resources of the land. The rubber trade in the Congo and 
in Brazil, and the cocoa trade in San Thomé, are examples of 
the gravest of these abuses of commerce. Such a contact of 
whites with backward people shows Western civilisation at its 
worst, for the lowest representatives of that civilisation ani- 
mated by the least worthy motives, introduce among the nations 
the least desirable products and practices of that civilisation, 
while their attempt to organise industrially and commercially the 
tropical countries, being directed to secure the largest immediate 
gains without due consideration of the future, is often attended 
by the maximum of waste and inhumanity.” *1 


Even when our commercial relations with primitive peoples are 
free from these unworthy elements, they are often essentially and 
inevitably destructive in their influence. Mr. Abel tells of the 
fundamental changes which contact with Western civilisation has 
introduced in New Guinea. The white race has introduced good 
government pledged to safeguard aboriginal rights, but it has 
monopolised the trade, and in spite of all the good which it has 
done, its influence has resulted in a decrease of the population and 
a substitution of new moral evils for the old. 


“In spite of the good which these forces have brought to the 
Papuan in both material and spiritual things,’ says Mr. Abel, 
“his old life has been so shaken to its foundations that he is faced 
with racial disaster. The new order has in it destructive elements 
far more evident in their results upon his life than are the con- 
structive forces. Benefits have been doled out by the handful; 
_while the things which are bringing about his material doom have 
been distributed broadcast. Even peace has meant the ruin of the 
old Papuan life; for the peacemakers have brought in new dis- 


*t Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper by J. A. Hobson, “ Opening of 
Markets and Countries,” pp. 227, 230. See The East and the West, Jan., 
1923, art. by Lord Meston, “India at the Crossways,” p. 70; Page, The 
Black Bishop, p. 320; The Country Editor, Jan., 1923. Art. ‘‘ Lubricating 
Revolutions with Oil”: “Bless us! What does the State Department exist 
for but to protect American interests in foreign countries? What is inter- 
national politics but international business? ” 


174 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


eases hitherto unknown, and ‘by compelling the Papuan to live at 
peace with his old enemies, many of his former industries and 
nearly all his arts have been destroyed.’ ” 7? 


The white race cannot be held responsible, as though it were a 
racial fault, for the introduction and development of modern in- 
dustrialism with its machinery organisation in Asia. It is true 
that this industrialism was first developed by the white race, but 
Asiatic capital as well as European and American capital estab- 
lished it in Asia, and whatever checks of humanitarianism have 
been laid upon it have been devised by the conscience of the white 
race. Nevertheless, it is not to be wondered at that the spirit of 
justice and humanity revolts against the evils which have appeared 
and is disposed to charge a heavy measure of them against the 
exploitation of the economically weaker race by forces awakened 
or controlled by the stronger races or directly drawn from them. 
Western students of the race problem should know what these 
evils of imported industrialism are in the great cities of the Far 
Fast. A careful observer writes the following from Chefoo, 
China: 


“In Chefoo, as in other cities of China, we found a serious in- 
dustrial problem. In the hair net factories seventeen thousand 
women and a thousand men are daily working ten hours for six 
cents a day. ‘Twenty-six thousand boys and young men are here 
employed in forty factories making pongee silk. They work thir- 
teen hours a day and receive an average daily wage of six cents. 
Skilled artisans are paid from twenty to thirty cents, but in many 
factories the average wage for common labour is only five cents 
a day. Despite these facts I found industrial conditions better in 
Chefoo than in any city I have yet visited in China. Owing to 
the early missionary work there are a number of Christian em- 
ployers in Chefoo who close their factories on Sunday, though 
most of the other industries are running seven days a week. 
There is a great deal of unrest and dissatisfaction amongst the 
workers, but to date there has been no systematic attempt to or- 
ganise. There have been three recent attempts to raise wages by 
strikes, but these were severely crushed by the police and a num- 
ber of the leaders were imprisoned. 


2 The Missionary Review of the World, May, 1923, art. “ Conflicting 
Forces in Papua,” pp. 377-382. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 175 


“We visited Tientsin, where we found fifteen thousand boys in 
the weaving factories working eighteen hours a day from 5 a. M. 
to 11 Pp. M., the majority receiving no pay whatever, but only their 
food. In the rug factories the boys work sixteen hours a day 
from 5:30 a. M. to 10 p. M., seven days a week. During the three 
years of apprenticeship they receive only their food and lodging. 
Many skilled workers are paid only four dollars a month. A 
large number of the boys are suffering from eye trouble and other 
diseases due to their working conditions and utter lack of care. 
In the best match factory we found boys from nine to twelve 
working fifteen hours a day seven days a week. Their pay runs 
from six to ten cents a day. Ejighty of these little workers must 
go to the hospital each day to be treated. The fumes of the cheap 
phosphorus and sulphur often affect their eyes and their lungs. 
Much of this could be avoided by using better chemicals, but the 
profits of the owners would not be so large. 

“There are at least fifty cotton mills around Shanghai, and 
more are going up. Not hundreds, but thousands of children, 
down to the age of eight or nine years, are employed. A recent 
report states that small boys, ten, eleven, and twelve years of age, 
are working stripped to the waist. Little girls, even smaller than 
the boys, eight or nine or ten perhaps, were standing between 
double rows of whizzing unguarded machinery, steadily but wear- 
ily feeding the machines. One mite, perhaps eight years of age, 
was curled in an exhausted heap on the cement floor sound asleep. 
Over in a corner, under a pile of cotton waste, a tiny baby was 
spending the night while his mother worked at a machine near by. 
And everywhere was the unceasing roar of the machinery, the 
heat and humidity, and the cotton-filled air. In one small hos- 
pital there were, one day this winter, three children under ten 
years old. The arm of one had been caught in an unfenced ma- 
chine and was all but torn off. The leg of another was mashed 
from hip to ankle by the teeth of a machine. The third, a little 
girl, had been caught by the hair in her machine and her scalp 
torn off. Not one of these accidents would have happened had 
the machines been fitted with safety devices. Most of the acci- 
dents happen on the night shifts, between two and four in the 
morning. The workers grow weary, heads droop with sleepiness, 
vigilance is relaxed, but the unguarded machines go on. Such 
are the terrible conditions in Chinese industry.” 7% 


Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department Information 
Service, Jan. 6, 1923; see The World Tomorrow, November, 1923, art. on 
“Capitalism in China.” 


176 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Two thoughts serve to ameliorate a little the shame which the 
white races should feel at the history of their relations with the 
backward peoples. One is that the moral conscience of the world 
has advanced and that from base beginnings the races have moved 
forward to a more honourable and helpful intercourse. Dr. James 
Stewart says that the African’s “ connection with the higher races 
hitherto has been to him a doubtful benefit,” but, writing in 1902, 
he goes on, 


“When, far on in the next century, some African comes to 
write the history of his continent and his race, he will probably 
write thus,—that up to a certain point or date—* Our contact with 
the higher civilised races of Europe and America invariably re- 
sulted in our further deterioration. We were shipped in multi- 
tudes across the seas to grow sugar, cotton, and tobacco. ‘That 
seemed to be all we were good for, at least all that we were reck- 
oned to be good for. When that business came to an end, other 
trades sprang up, the chief articles being spirits, guns and gun- 
powder, which we used to destroy ourselves and to destroy one 
another. About the end of the nineteenth century, or the begin- 
ning of the twentieth, a change for the better began to appear. It 
is true, the whole of the continent was partitioned among the 
civilised peoples of Europe, and at first we did not reap much 
benefit thereby. Some regions were rendered more miserable than 
before. But gradually, through the substitution of a humaner and 
wiser rule, and by the progress of education, and most of all 
through the introduction of Christianity, we have now reached a 
happier and better condition of life.’” ** 


The second comforting fact is that on the whole, evil though 
the past has been, it has yielded already a net result of good. Dr. 
Thomas Jesse Jones takes this view in the report on Education im 
Africa presented by the Commission, of which he was chairman, 
which visited Africa in 1920-21. In discussing ‘‘ Kuropean and 
American Influences ” he writes, 


“There have been various interpretations of the contributions 
made by the white races to Africa. Some have thought that the 


* Dawn in the Dark Continent, p. 365 £. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 177 


influences of Europeans and Americans have been more for evil 
than for good. Some have thought it would have been better to 
leave the African in his natural condition. Few have realised the 
importance of the movements that have been started and the 
changes that have been wrought. It must be stated that many 
mistakes have been made and many injustices have been perpe- 
trated. In some sections the Africans have suffered tragically at 
the hands of selfish white exploiters. Evil influences originated 
by white people still persist in too many parts of Africa. It is, 
however, the emphatic conviction of the Education Commission 
that the gains that have come to Africa through the white man are 
far greater than the losses. The evidence indicates that the his- 
tory of the African people resembles that of all other peoples in 
the world, in that their progress has been and will continue to be 
the result of co-operative relationships with other peoples. It 
seems clear that the extreme demand for the elimination of the 
white man from Africa represents a desire to reverse the most im- 
portant lessons of history. Thoughtful Africans are increasingly 
realising not only the importance but the necessity of the co- 
operation of the white group. 

“Among the most convincing evidences of this conviction are 
those obtained from a study of the portions of Africa now ruled 
by European nations. ‘The elements of life that reflect the 
changes introduced by the white groups have been the improve- 
ment of physical well-being, including the decrease of sickness and 
death and the attendant suffering; the decrease and often the 
elimination of the power of witchcraft, a form of oppression ex- 
ceedingly general and cruel; the overthrow of intertribal slavery ; 
the development of friendly relations among tribes formerly hos- 
tile; the extension of the economic benefits of the country to all 
the tribes; and the opening of the doors of civilisation to those 
who were formerly limited to the narrow compass of their tribes. 
It is true that the extension of commercial, industrial, and even 
governmental influences sometimes have too often been attended 
with suffering on the part of the Native people. The early periods 
of adjustment to the new forces are especially trying. But in the 
long run one of the best measures of the final influence of the 
white group upon the Native peoples is the increase or decrease of 
population. So long as there are no records of the feelings of the 
Native masses we must rely upon the only vital measure that re- 
flects the condition of the majority of the group, namely, the 
power of the group to maintain life. On this basis, the statistics 
of most of the colonies show a decided increase in population, and 
therefore an improvement of general welfare. The African areas 


178 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and colonies where decreases are indicated are known from other 
sources to be suffering from wrong governmental, economic, or 
social policies. : 

“The record of government service in Africa is a mingling of 
the good and the bad, the effective and the ineffective, the wise and 
the unwise. Despite the failures and injustices of the govern- 
ments in handling the Natives, the advantages to Native life 
provided by the colonial governments have on the whole over- 
shadowed the disadvantages.” °° 


Even if we accept these two mollifying judgments it is indisput- 
able that strong races have imposed on weaker races two evils 
whose vicious character cannot be overstated. 

One of these was the traffic in liquor and opium. This traffic in 
liquor will be one of the terrible counts in the indictment which 
posterity will draw against Europe and America in their dealings 
with Africa. We have slowly rooted out the atrocious traffic in 
slaves only to plant in its place the equally abominable trade in 
strong drink. Some would say, more abominable. “It is my 
sincere belief,’ declared Sir Richard Burton, “that if the slave 
trade were revived with all its horrors, and Africa could get rid 
of the white man with the gunpowder and rum which he has intro- 
duced, Africa would be the gainer by the exchange.” And Sir 
John Kirk goes so far as to declare: “ The last four centuries of 
contact with Europeans and European trade has degraded rather 
than elevated or improved the people.” These are strong words, 
but scarcely a traveller and never a missionary sends back from 
Africa any favourable report. Joseph Thomson was a capable and 
in this matter an unbiased man, and no one had better opportunity 
for observation, and this was his testimony: 


“The notorious gin trade . . . is indeed a scandal and a 
shame, well worthy to be classed with the detested slave trade, in 
which we had ourselves ever so prominent a part. We talk of 
civilising the Negro and introducing the blessings of European 
trade, while at one and the same time we pour into this unhappy 
country incredible quantities of gin, rum, gunpowder and guns. 


* Education in Africa, p. 7 f. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 179 


We are so accustomed to hearing a delightful list of the useful 
articles which the Negro wants in return for the products of his 
country that we are apt to think that the trade in spirits must be 
quite a minor affair. Banish all such pleasing illusions from your 
minds. The trade in this baleful article is enormous. The appe- 
tite for it increases out of all proportion to the desire for better 
things and to our shame be it said, we are ever ready to supply 
the victims to the utmost, driving them deeper and deeper into 
the slough of depravity, ruining them body and soul, while at 
home we talk sanctimoniously, as if the introduction of our trade 
and the elevation of the Negro went hand in hand. The time has 
surely come when in the interests of our national honour, ener- 
getic efforts should be made to suppress the diabolical traffic. 
There can be no excuse for its continuance, and it is a blot on 
Christian civilisation.” 


For many years a great flood of liquor poured into Africa. In 
1884 the imports from Great Britain, America, Portugal and Ger- 
many were 8,751,527 gallons, of which 7,136,263 came from 
Germany, and 921,412 from America. The imports in 1901 into 
British West Africa alone were 2,319,731 gallons of gin and 1,- 
834,514 gallons of rum and whiskey. So firmly fixed did the 
cruel habit become, that in some parts of Africa gin was the only 
currency, and even some Roman Catholic missionaries used it for 
this purpose. It ruins the African physically, enslaves whole vil- 
lages, men, women and children, and in the end it is as surely the 
death of trade as the slave traffic itself. Scarcely a true book on 
Africa dealing with the last half century can be found which does 
not expose the shame of this traffic or apologise for it. “In the 
poorest part,” we read in the life of Mary Slessor, “she comes 
upon a group of men selling rum. At the sight of the ‘ white Ma’ 
they put the stuff away and beg her to stay. They are quiet until 
she denounces the sale of the liquor; then one interrupts: ‘ What 
for white man bring them rum suppose them rum no be good? He 
be god-man bring the rum—then what for god-man talk so?’ 
What can she answer? 

“It is a vile fluid, this trade spirit, yet the country is deluged 
with it, and it leaves behind it disaster and demoralisation and 
ruined homes. Mary feels bitter against the civilised countries 


180 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


that seek profit from the moral devastation of humanity. She 
cannot answer the man.” 78 

Of course the real motive for the liquor traffic back of all the 
concocted defences made for it, is the desire for gain, or the ne- 
cessity for revenue, West Africa frankly said: “Take the 
hypothesis of a total abolition of the liquor traffic—how would 
the colonies replace the revenue they derive from the taxation on 
spirit imports? As the revenue from spirits forms about sixty 
per cent. of the total, the part which spirits play in the administra- 
tion of British West Africa has to be faced.” 

Little by little, beginning with the Berlin Conference in 1884, 
the struggle against the liquor traffic in Africa made headway in 
spite of political and commercial obstruction, and now there are 
wide zones of prohibition or heavy tariff duties which protect, 
though as yet inadequately, the African races from the physical 
and moral degradation of drink. 

The opium trade in Asia is the counterpart of the liquor trade 
in Africa and the South Seas. Mr. Foster quotes a letter from 
Mr. W. N. Pethick, an American long resident in China, which 
had been transmitted to the State Department by Dr. Angell, then 
American Minister at Peking, in which Mr. Pethick stated that at 
that time “ the single article of opium imported equals in value all 
other goods brought into China, and is greater than all the tea or 
all the silk (the two chief articles of export) sent out of the coun- 
try,—which show that the black stream of pollution which has so 
long flowed out of India into China has been increasing in volume 
and spreading its baneful influence wider and wider.” 2% And 
Mr. Foster, one of the most careful and temperate of men, added, 
“There is much to be said in commendation of the British gov- © 
ernment in its relations with the Orient, but its connection with the 
opium traffic of China has left a dark and ineffaceable stain upon 
its record. In this matter the greed of the East India Company 
and its successor, the government of India, triumphed over the 
moral sentiment of the nation, which has done so much for the 


* Livingstone, Mary Slessor of Calabar, p. 31. 
* American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 296. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 181 


amelioration of the condition of mankind.” °° China and Japan 
have fought a long battle against the opium trade and have in 
great measure prevailed, although even now corrupt Chinese and 
Western or Indian allies seek to continue the destructive traffic, 
and Japan, still sedulously excluding the drug from its own people, 
co-operates with wholesale exporters of morphine in Scotland and 
the United States to corrupt China with this new habit in place of 
the old. Does not the same principle of humanity which favours 
the freest interchange in wholesome trade also condemn all com- 
merce in articles which destroy human efficiency between races of 
equal strength and still more between the races which have power 
to injure others and the races which do not have power to resist ? °° 

The second great evil imposed on weaker races by the strong 
has been slavery. It is true that slavery has not always been inter- 
racial. Among the Greeks and Romans the institution had been 
wholly independent of race distinction. Plato held that nature 
had intended some to bear rule and others to serve. The Roman 
law held the slave not as an alien, but as a man, to be property 
like any other chattel.°° “The slaves at Athens were of the same 
blood with their masters, at least not separated from them by such 
apparent differences of race as separate the African or the Malay- 
sian from the European.” *! In Egypt races and people of any 
colour were enslaved. The whole Hebrew nation bore the slave 
status. In Scotland white slavery existed until the nineteenth 
century, as described by Hugh Miller in My Schools and School- 
masters (pp. 303-305). In the early days in America there were 
more white slaves than black. 


“In less than a score of years after their first introduction, 
white servants were exported to the colonies as a species of mer- 
chandise and were dealt with as any other article of commodity. 


* Tbid., p. 299. 

*® Hearings before 67th Congress on “Limiting Production of Habit- 
Forming Drugs.” Speech by S. G. Porter, Feb..26, 1923, House of Repre- 
sentatives; Peking and Tientsin Times, Sept. 6, 1920; New York Times, 
editorial, “The Opium Traffic,’ Feb. 15, 1923; Far Eastern Fortnightly, 
Jan. 17 and 31, 1921. 

 Uhlhorn, Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, pp. 131-141. 

% Storrs, The Divine Origin of Christianity, pp. 154-164. 


182 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Moreover, such was the scarcity of labour and the pecuniary in- 
ducements held out, that many poor people sold themselves in 
order to reach these shores. A census taken in 1625 shows that 
there were, at that date, 464 white servants and 22 Negro slaves 
in the Virginia colony. Forty years later there were more than 
six thousand white indentured servants in the same section. 

“Nor was this species of, human chattelism confined to Vir- 
ginia, for, notwithstanding the introduction of Negro slaves, it 1s 
reliably estimated that as late as 1680, of the great number of 
youthful persons sent to the colonies as indentured servants, the 
larger portion of them were procured by felonious means. High 
authorities assert that not less than ten thousand of the youth of 
both sexes were annually abducted from English homes. All of 
them did not reach the colonies, for many of them died on the 
passage out, owing to the scant provision made for their care and 
the brutality of the shipmasters.” *? 


But the great development of the institution of human slavery 
rested on race discrimination. Among the ancients, as nations 
spread by military conquest, the vanquished passed under the yoke 
of bondage. And in the modern world outside of a few lands 
where there is intraracial agricultural serfdom or industrial in- 
denture, slavery has become a matter of race relationship. 

No one can be found any longer to apologise for the horrors of 
the African slave traffic. And it would be hard to say which races 
are guilty of the grosser brutality, the Arabs or the Europeans. 
The actual raiding of the interior villages was the work of the 
Moslem Arabs. Recall an eye witness’s picture of one of the 
slave caravans with its Arab leader setting out for Zanzibar after 
converting “a smiling valley, called the Garden of Tanganyika, 
into a hungry wilderness.” ‘This was Moir’s description : 


“First came armed men dancing, gesticulating and throwing 
their guns, as only Arabs can do, to the sound of drums, panpipes 
and other less musical instruments. ‘Then followed, slowly and 
sedately, the great man himself, accompanied by his brother and 
other head men, his richly caparisoned donkey walking along near 
by; and surely no greater contrast could be conceived than that 
between this courteous, white-robed Arab, with his gold- 
embroidered joho, silver sword and daggers, and silken turban, 


Thomas, The American Negro, p. 5. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 183 


and the miserable swarm of naked, squalid human beings that he 
had wantonly dragged from their now ruined homes in order to 
enrich himself. 

“Behind the Arab came wives and household servants, laugh- 
ing and talking as they passed along, carrying the camp utensils 
and other impediments of their masters. After that the main 
rabble of the caravan, the men armed with guns, spears and axes. 
Ominously prominent among the loads were many slave sticks to 
be handy if any turned refractory, or if any likely strangers were 
met. Mingling with and guarded by them came the wretched, 
over-burdened, tied-up slaves. The men who might still have had 
spirit to try and escape, were driven, tied two and two, in the ter- 
rible goree or taming stick, or in gangs of about a dozen, each with 
an iron collar let into a long iron chain, many even, so soon after 
the start, staggering under their loads. 

“And the women! I can hardly trust myself to think or speak 
of them—they were fastened to chains or thick bark ropes; very 
many in addition to their heavy weight of grain or ivory, carried 
little brown babies dear to their hearts as a white man’s child to 
his. The double burden was almost too much, and yet they strug- 
gled bravely on, knowing too well that when they showed signs 
of fatigue, not the slaver’s ivory but the living child would be torn 
from them and thrown aside to die. One poor old woman I could 
not help noticing. She was carrying a biggish boy who should 
have been walking, but those thin, weak legs had evidently given 
way. She was tottering already; it was the supreme effort of a 
mother’s love—and all in vain; for the child, easily recognisable, 
was brought into camp a couple of hours later by one of my 
hunters, who had found him on the path. We had him cared for, 
but his poor mother would never know. Already, during the three 
days’ journey from Liendure, death had been freeing the captives. 
It was well for them; still we could not help shuddering, as in the 
darkness we heard the howl of the hyenas along the track, and 
realised only too fully the reason why. Low as these poor Ne- 
groes may be in the moral scale, they have still strong maternal 
affection, and love of home and country. 

“ For ninety miles along the south coast of Tanganyika we have 
the entire population swept away.” *° 


But the activity of the white races was no less evil and it is not 
improbable that it cost Africa many more lives than the Arabs 


Church Missionary Intelligencer, August 1, 1884, p. 505 f. 


184 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


carried north or north-east. Let a spokesman of the Negro race 
state the case: 


“ The exact proportions of the slave trade can be estimated only 
approximately. From 1680 to 1688 we know that the English 
African Company alone sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there 
60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the middle pas- 
sage, delivered 46,396 in America. 

“It seems probable that 25,000 Negroes a year arrived in 
America between 1698 and 1707. After the Asiento of 1713 this 
number rose to 30,000 annually, and before the Revolutionary 
War it had reached at least 40,000 and perhaps 100,000 slaves 
a year. 

“The total number of slaves imported is not known. Dunbar 
estimates that nearly 900,000 came to America in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, 2,750,000 in the seventeenth, 7,000,000 in the eighteenth, and 
over 4,000,000 in the nineteenth, perhaps 15,000,000 in all. Cer- 
tainly it seems that at least 10,000,000 Negroes were expatriated. 
Probably every slave imported represented on the average five 
corpses in Africa or on the high seas. The American slave trade, 
therefore, meant the elimination of at least 60,000,000 Negroes 
from their fatherland. The Mohammedan slave trade meant the 
expatriation or forcible migration in Africa of nearly as many 
more. It would be conservative, then, to say that the slave trade 
cost Negro Africa 100,000,000 souls. And yet people ask today 
the cause of the stagnation of culture in that land since 1600! 

“Such a large number of slaves could be supplied only by or- 
ganised slave raiding in every corner of Africa. The African 
continent gradually became revolutionised. Whole regions were 
depopulated, whole tribes disappeared ; villages were built in caves 
and on hills or in forest fastnesses; the character of peoples like 
those of Benin developed their worst excesses of cruelty instead 
of the already flourishing arts of peace. The dark, irresistible 
grasp of fetish took firmer hold on men’s minds. 

“Further advances toward civilisation became impossible. 
Not only was there the immense demand for slaves which had its 
outlet on the west coast, but the slave caravans were streaming up 
through the desert to the Mediterranean coast and down the valley 
of the Nile to the centers of Mohammedanism. It was a rape of 
a continent to an extent never paralleled in ancient or modern 
times. 

“In the American trade there was not only the horror of the 
slave raid, which lined the winding paths of the African jungles 
with bleached bones, but there was also the horror of what was 
called the ‘ middle passage,’ this is, the voyage across the Atlantic. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 185 


As Sir William Dolben said, ‘The Negroes were chained to each 
other hand and foot, and stowed so close that they were not al- 
lowed above a foot and a half for each in breadth. Thus crammed 
together like herrings in a barrel, they contracted putrid and fatal 
disorders ; so that they who came to inspect them in a morning had 
occasionally to pick dead slaves out of their rows, and to unchain 
their carcases from the bodies of their wretched fellow-sufferers 
to whom they had been fastened.’ 

“Tt was estimated that out of every one hundred lot shipped 
from Africa only about fifty lived to be effective labourers across 
the sea, and among the whites more seamen died in that trade in one 
year than in the whole remaining trade of England in two... . 

“Such is the story of the Rape of Ethiopia—a sordid, pitiful, 
cruel tale. Raphael painted, Luther preached, Corneille wrote, 
and Milton sung; and through it all, for four hundred years, the 
dark captives wound to the sea amid the bleaching bones of the 
dead; for four hundred years the sharks followed the scurrying 
ships; for four hundred years America was strewn with the living 
and dying millions of a transplanted race; for four hundred years 
Ethiopia stretched forth her hands unto God.” 34 


The supreme experience of men in the matter of the enslave- 
ment of one race by another was given to us in America. This is 


* Du Bois, The Negro, pp. 155-159. And labour conditions still prevail 
in portions of Africa which differ only in name and not in reality from 
slavery, as is set forth in the following memorial submitted in 1923 to the 
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America: 

The Fairfield County Association of Churches asks the Federal Council 
to undertake a study of the facts and then to initiate such activities as may 
be found necessary to secure the complete suppression of slavery. 

The Association submits for information the following extracts from 
African Labor Regulations: 

From a British Admiralty Report on Portuguese East Africa, 1920. 

Page 184. “The disinclination of African people to work for Europeans 
without compensation is probably as pronounced in Portuguese East Africa 
as elsewhere. In the days of slave-holding it was possible to obtain the 
required labour by force. At the present time the form of compulsion is 
more subtle, but nevertheless as real. 

“The hut tax and poll tax imposed in the different districts of the prov- 
ince (of Mozambique) are in reality a compulsory contribution to the 
labour resources of the State. As a complement to this taxation elaborate 
labour regulations have been made. Those of the Mozambique Company 
of July 26, 1907, may be taken as an example of these provisions.” 

Regulations condensed : 

1. “Natives who do not properly cultivate their own small properties, 
(see later regulation regarding 2 acre properties), or do not offer them- 
selves for work in the ordinary way, may be urged to enter into contracts 


186 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


a true statement. It was given to us. The Southern people who 
lived at the time of the Civil War had not enslaved the Negro. 
The Negro slaves in the South at the time of the Civil War had 
not been raped from Africa. Both whites and blacks had come 
into their relationship by inheritance. While almost all the blacks 
were slaves, by no means all of the whites were slave owners. 
“The total white population of the fifteen slaveholding states in 
1860 was 8,099,760, and the number of slaveholders was 383,637 ; 
of whom 277,000 owned less than ten slaves each; 10,751 owned 
fifty or more; 1,733 owned one hundred or more; 312 owned over 


with the Company or with individuals to work for a period to be agreed 
upon, which is not less than three months. 

2. “Failing compliance with these regulations they may be sentenced to 
correctional labour for not less than a fortnight nor more than a year, at 
one-third of the ordinary wage, to be paid in kind. 

3. “ With regard to the occupation of the land by natives for purposes of 
cultivation, the benefit of exemption from compulsory labour is only con- 
ceded to those who possess a property of a value superior to 5,000 centavos. 
In this connection natives are permitted to occupy vacant land to the extent 
of not more than one hectare (two acres) for which no rent will be charged 
for five years, but will be after that. After 20 years the native may become 
the owner. 

4, “The poll tax and part of the hut tax can be paid by labour performed 
by the native, or may be paid in kind when the native can prove that he has 
laboured enough to have paid it in labour. 

5. “ Natives who do not perform their labour voluntarily may be invited 
to work for the Company or individuals, and in case of refusal and resist- 
ance may be condemned to correctional labour under the surveillance of 
the police, during which they will be lodged and fed and will receive a wage 
in kind corresponding to one-third of that paid to other labourers.” 

6. “ The services of labourers may be requisitioned by the local authori- 
ties and holders of land, and by merchants and others, and will so far as 
possible be supplied, for a period not Jess than three months, for which the 
employer must pay the wages fixed by public tariff and furnish sufficient 
food and lodging. Such contracts to labour must not exceed five years. 

7. “Employers may requisition the labour of natives condemned to cor- 
rectional labour under police surveillance from the Company in the same 
manner. (In such cases, of course, the two-thirds wage forfeited by the 
native will accrue to the Company.) 

8. “ The regulations were revised in 1915 to entail the obligation to labour 
for all males over 18 and under 60 years of age, with certain specified 
exceptions. 

9. “ Natives, however, have the right to contract freely for their labour, 
with or without the intervention of the authorities, whilst the heads of in- 
dustrial and agricultural enterprises employing over 500 natives are per- 
mitted to organise their own police to maintain order in their undertakings. 
Contracts cannot be for more than five years, and flogging, except by 
administrative permission, is not permitted. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 187 


200 ; fourteen owned 500; while there were practically 75,000 who 
owned only one each.’ *> Originally, moreover, there was a 
stronger anti-slavery feeling in the South than in the North. 
“William Pinckney, in 1789, boldly affirmed in the Maryland 
House of Delegates, that, ‘By the eternal principles of natural 
justice, no master in this state has a right to hold his slave for a 
single hour.’ Luther Martin, a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention from Maryland, opposed the adoption of the Consti- 


4 pe 
i | Val 


10. “Labourers are not required to work for more than 9 hours a day, 
and provision is made for at least four days’ rest during the month. More- 
over, labourers entering upon a new contract are entitled to have their 
wages raised 5 per cent. from year to year.” 


FroM A LAW PUBLISHED IN THE LEADING PAPER IN ANGOLA, West AFRICA. 
From the Nation of Feb. 27, 1921. 


1. Every able-bodied native must give not less than 90 days’ labour every 
year to some form of industrial establishment. 

2. If a native does not comply with this regulation voluntarily he 
be compelled ” to give not less than 180 days. 

3. Any one “indecorously clothed” is, “without further legal form,” 
condemned to “not less than 180 days’” labour. 

4, Every official when collecting the hut tax must demand a certificate 
from the native tax-payer from his “patron,” not having which the native 
is punished. 

5. Natives defaulting in the service of their “ patrons shall be con- 
demned to correctional labour of not more than six months.” 

12. Every farmer is permitted a “place of detention” in which his 
labourers must live “outside of work hours.” 

13. The fixed labour conditions call upon the patron to 

1. Give two and one half Ibs. of corn meal and beans—raw, daily to 
each workman. 

2. Pay $1.50 (15 cts. U. S. Money) up to $2.40 (24 cts. U. S.) per 
month to each volunteer labourer. Those forced to labour get 20 
cts. per month less. 

14. Natives in service must be given assistance and food when sick or 
_ hurt during the time of contract. 

15. No patron or labourer shall be condemned without being heard. 

16. A patron who shall fail to comply with any of the requirements of 
this regulation shall be fined, never less than $5 nor more than $150. If 
any patron for any reason shall attempt to evade the regulation by certify- 
ing that his natives have complied with the obligation to work when they 
have not, or who says that he has natives in his employ when he has not, 
(that is, try to protect the natives from the forced labour laws) he shall be 
punished with a fine of $50 for the first offense and $100 for subsequent 
offenses. 

17. The local authorities shall ask the farmers to turn over to them any 
native who may be considered incorrigible from any standpoint so that he 
may be sent away for military service. 

*® Moore, The South To-day, p. 31. 


“ shall 


99 66 


188 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


tution on the ground that it contained no express provision against 
slavery ; and General Lee, of Virginia, lamented that no provision 
was made in the document for the gradual abolition of slavery; 
while Judge Tucker, of the same state, in a letter to its General 
Assembly, recommending the abolition of their slaves, said, ‘It is 
our first duty to effectuate so desirable an object, and to remove 
from us a stigma, with which our enemies will never fail to up- 
braid us, nor our consciences to reproach us.’” ?® The invention 
of the cotton gin, the consequent profitableness of Negro labour, 
the rapid growth of the slave population, numbering 700,000 in 
1790 and 1,191,362 in 1810, and 2,009,043 in 1830, and 3,204,313 
in 1850; the lack of education among the masses of the Southern 
whites, the geographical isolation of the states, the increasing 
struggle between diverse political principles, the commercial greed 
and rivalry of each section, and racial discrimination are some of 
the reasons given for the disappearance of the early abolition 
sentiment and the growth instead of the doctrine of the sanctity 
of slavery as a divine institution. 

Some hold that slavery rests on race antipathy, others that race 
antipathy springs from slavery. Undoubtedly each reacts on the 
other, although there are those who argue that slavery accepted by 
the slaves is the one sure method of escaping race friction. 


“The late Professor Shaler, of Harvard,” says Mr. Stone, 
“summed up with absolute accuracy the function of slavery in 
making possible relations of mutual amity between the white and 
Negro races in this country, when he declared that, ‘’ The one con- 
dition in which very diverse races may be brought into close social 
relations without much danger of hatred, destructive to the social 
order, is when an inferior race is enslaved by a superior.’ His 
opinion was that ‘this form of union is stronger than it has ap- 
peared to those who have allowed their justifiable dislike of the 
relation to prejudice them as to its consequences.’ Professor 
Shaler struck one of the keynotes of the ante bellum situation 
when he said that slavery made impossible any sort of rivalry 
between the races. He declared his utter detestation of the insti- 
tution, but said it should be recognised that ‘it was effective in 


* Thomas, The American Negro, p. 28. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 189 


the prevention of race hatreds.’ To quote his words: ‘ Moreover, 
it brought the two races into a position where there was no longer 
any instinctive repugnance to each other, derived from the strik- 
ing differences of colour or of form. If the Negroes had been 
cast upon this shore under any other conditions than those of slav- 
ery, they would have been unable to obtain this relation with the 
whites which their condition of bondage gave.’ ” °" 


Is not the idea of a continuous acceptance by any race of its own 
enslavement illusory? Has there ever been or could there ever be 
such an atrophy of the sense of manhood and freedom? Do not 
those who think that the Negro was satisfied with the status of 
slavery ignore the mass of evidence which disproves their idea? 
Is it not certainly true that if the South had won the Civil War 
and set up an independent Confederacy on the basis of States 
Rights and Slavery, it would have given them both up within 
fifty years? 

The institution of slavery in the South bore two aspects. “ One 
hears, on the one hand,” says Du Bois, “of the staid and gentle 
patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retain- 
ers, ease and happiness; on the other hand one hears of barbarous 
cruelty and unbridled power and wide oppression of men. Which 
is the true picture? The answer is simple: both are true.” °° 
Good or bad, however, the institution was a wrong institution, and 
the theft of the Negro from Africa was a crime of which Africa 
still bears the deep scar and for which both the black and the white 
races in America have suffered and have to suffer more. Eco- 
nomically and morally slavery was a curse to the South, but it has 
brought its blessings both to the white and black, to the black most 
of all. Compare the Negro population of the United States today 
with the Negro races in Africa. But also it has brought the bless- 
ing of a race testing and of the possibility of a greater race sym- 
pathy and service to the white race. 


“We have heard much already,” said the late J. L. M. Curry 
to a Southern audience at Montgomery, Alabama, at the Confer- 
ence of the Society for the Consideration of the Race Problems 


7 Stone, The American Race Problem, p. 220. 
* Du Bois, The Negro, p. 190. 


190 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and Conditions of the South, on May 9, 1900, “and will hear more 
before we adjourn, of slavery. It was an economic curse, a leg- 
acy of ignorance. It cursed the South with stupid, ignorant, un- 
inventive labour. The curse in large degree remains. The policy 
of some would perpetuate it and give a system of serfdom, de- 
grading to the Negro, corrupting to the employer. The Negro isa 
valuable labourer ; let us improve him and make his labour more 
intelligent, more skilled, more productive. . . . Shall the Cau- 
casian race, in timid fearfulness, in cowardly injustice, wrong an 
inferior race, put obstacles to its progress? Left to itself, away 
from the elevating influence of contact and tuition, there will be 
retrogression. Shall we hasten the retrogression, shall we have 
two races side by side, equal in political privileges, one educated, 
the other ignorant? Unless the white people, the superior, the 
cultivated race, lift up the lower, both will be inevitably dragged 
down.” 89 


And Mr. Murphy, one of the leaders of the new mind of the 
South, after quoting Dr. Curry’s words, adds: 


“This sense of responsibility is the present residuum of the 
moral forces of the old South. It is a natural and legitimate de- 
velopment. It was under slavery that men learned the oppressive 
significance of the Negro’s heritage from barbarism. It was 
under slavery that men first learned the presence of those latent 
capacities by which the Negro has so often transcended the limita- 
tions of that heritage. It was through the bond of slavery that 
the wiser South was taught, in the light of an immediate self- 
interest, the advantage to the white man in the Negro’s integrity 
and skill—the disadvantage, indeed the peril, to the white man in 
the Negro’s inefficiency and vice.’ 4° 


Out of so great an evil as the enslavement of the black by the 
white race has been, there ought to be won some great good, both 
to the Negroes and to the whole human race. This is the deep 
conviction of the wisest Negro leaders. 


“We are convinced,” says Professor Kelly Miller, “that the 
whole movement must have been under the direction of a guiding 
hand higher than human intelligence or foresight. The incident 
evils that have grown out of the historic contact of these two 


® Quoted by Murphy, The Present South, p. 5. 
“ Ibid., p. 8; Hammond, In Black and White, p. 184. 


Se ee 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 191 


races are but the logical outcome of a short-sighted and fatuous 
philosophy. The benefit to civilisation now flowing and destined 
to flow from this contact illustrates the teaching of history, that 
an overruling Providence makes the wrath of man to praise Him, 
while holding the remainder of wrath in restraint. Slavery was 
an institution of learning as well as of labour. There is no like 
instance in history where a weaker race in such large numbers has 
been introduced into the midst of the stronger race and has en- 

tered into the inheritance of civilisation. Inheritance is the re- 
ward of meekness. The galaxy of the Christian graces, loving 
kindness, humility and forgiveness of spirit are exemplified in the 
Negro character, and verily he has his reward.” #4! 


i Two other instances of race injustice on the part of the white 
race in America were our treatment of the Indians and the method 
of our dealing with the problem of Chinese immigration. In the 
matter of the Indians, Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of 
Dishonour is the classic indictment of our national policy, “ free 
from exaggeration and over-vehemence,” as Col. Higginson said, 
and “thoroughly justified with facts and citations.” And the late 
Bishop Whipple in repeated speeches and published statements set 
forth the wrongs which the Indians suffered at our hands. He 
charged that “in all our relations with the Indians we have per- 
sistently carried out the idea that they were a sovereign people.” 
Yet, “they did not possess a single element of sovereignty and we 
never allowed them to exercise any except the matter of treaty 
making, and in this we habitually deceived them and habitually 
broke the treaties we made with them.” We destroyed their tribal 
government and allowed no replacement of it. 


“The only being in America who has no law to punish the 
guilty or protect the innocent is the treaty Indian. . . . The 
only law administered by ourselves was to pay a premium for 
crime. . . . The Government has really given the weight of 
influence on the side of heathen life. The sale of fire water has 
been almost unblushing. . . . The system of trade was ruinous 
to honest traders and pernicious to the Indian. . . . Every 
influence which could add to the degradation of this hapless race 


"The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1922, art. “ Negroes, both 
at Home and Abroad.” 


192 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


seems to be its inheritance. . . . The history of our dealings 
with the Indian has been marked by gross acts of injustice and 
robbery.) 


A better day came for the Indians at last, but only after a long 
story of iniquitous race oppression and injustice perpetrated by a 
strong and intelligent race on a race that was ignorant and weak. 
It was not the wrong of man against man only. It was the wrong 
of race against race. John Quincy Adams called it in its early be- 
ginnings a “mass of putrefaction.”” The white race would not 
have thought of dealing with such faithlessness and cruelty with 
an equal race, able to resist it.*% 

Our dealings with the Chinese made an equally shameful though 
a much shorter story. It is wonderful that the Chinese should 
be able to cherish such kindly feelings as they do today toward 
America and in a lesser measure toward Europe when we recall 
what the Chinese race has had to endure. “I believe that you 
have the confidence of the people of China as it is possessed by 
no other nation,” said His Excellency, Mr. Sze, the Chinese Min- 
ister to the United States, at a dinner of the China Society of 
America in September, 1921, “ Most surely you have the good 
will of our Chinese millions to an almost unbounded extent. The 
good will of four hundred millions of people is a wonderful asset 
in this troubled world, and on our side we consider the good will 
of your hundred and ten millions as our most important haven in 
a stormy sea.” It is good that wrongs can be so forgiven and 
forgotten. “It was the aggressive spirit and the violent conduct 
of the European nations which led the Chinese to close their ports 
against foreign commerce, and after two centuries of seclusion, it 
was a like influence of aggression and violence on the part of the 
same nations which was destined to compel the Chinese to reverse 


: pay ipple, Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate, pp. 124, 125, 140, 
10-562. 

* See our present relations to the Sioux and Pueblo Indians. New York 
Times, May 7, 1923, article, “ Sioux Sue Nation for $700,000,000,” and Jn- 
formation Service, Research Department, Commission on the Church and 
Social Service, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Feb. 
3, 1923, p. 5 f., art. “ The Case of the Pueblo Indians.” 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 193 


their policy and again to open their ports to the world.” ** Later 
the coolie trade grew up,—“ the procurement from southern China 
of labourers, their transportation to Peru, Cuba, and other coun- 
tries nominally under a contract of service for a term of years, but 
virtually constituting a system of slavery with all its attendant 
hardships and horrors. The American consul at Hongkong, who 
was familiar with this traffic, reported to his government that it 
differed from the African slave-trade ‘in little else than the em- 
ployment of fraud instead of force to make its victims captive.’ 
Secretary Seward, who visited China on his tour of the world 
about the time when it was at its height, described it as ‘an abom1- 
nation scarcely less execrable than the African slave-trade.’ 

It is estimated that more than one hundred thousand Chinese 
coolies were taken to Peru and about one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand to Cuba. . . . They were treated as slaves, branded, 
lashed, and tortured, and their condition wis so wretched that 
many sought relief in death.” *° In due time the United States 
prohibited American vessels from engaging in the trade and wel- 
comed the Chinese to come as immigrants to the country. We 
shall consider later the question of the propriety of the restriction 
or prohibition of immigration. We have to note here, however, 
that the Burlingame treaty with China, in 1868, recognised on the 
part of both governments the inherent and inalienable right of 
man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual ad- 
vantage of the free immigration and emigration of their citizens 
and subjects respectively from one country to the other for pur- 
poses of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents, and “ pro- 
vided that the citizens and subjects respectively ‘shall enjoy the 
same privileges, immunities, or exemptions in respect to travel or 
residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the 
most favoured nation.” 4% ‘Thousands of Chinese labourers ac- 
cordingly came over to America for railroad building and other 
service. Mr. Fish, Secretary of State under President Grant, 
wrote, ‘“ Every month brings thousands of Chinese immigrants to 
#4 Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 25. 


+ 1010.,, Dp...270, 2/7, 
CD10... Di 250. 


194 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the Pacific Coast. Already they have crossed the great mountains 
and are beginning to be found in the interior of the continent. By 
their assiduity, patience, and fidelity, and by their intelligence, they 
earn the good-will and confidence of those who employ them. We 
have good reason to think this thing will continue and increase ;” 
and the Secretary said it was welcomed by the country.*? Strong 
opposition soon developed and a Congressional Commission was 
appointed in 1876 to visit the Pacific Coast and report. The Com- 
mission held 


“that an indigestible mass in the community, distinct in lan- 
guage, pagan in religion, inferior in mental and moral qualities, 
was an undesirable element in a republic, and especially so if 
political power should be placed in its hands; that the safety of 
the state demanded that such power should not be so placed, and 
the safety of the immigrant depended upon that power. It was 
painfully evident from the testimony that the Pacific coast must 
in time become either American or Mongolian; that while condi- 
tions were favourable to the growth and occupancy of the 
Pacific States by Americans, the Chinese had advantages which 
would put them far in advance in the race for possession; and 
that the presence of Chinese discouraged and retarded white 
immigration.” 4° 


As a result of this report Congress passed exclusion laws in 
direct violation of the Burlingame treaty, and without consulting 
China abrogated the articles relating to the free immigration and 
residence of Chinese. Several years later a new treaty was made 
in which it was agreed that the United States might regulate, limit 
or suspend immigration of labourers but not prohibit it, other 
classes of Chinese to enter freely and reside. In two years Con- 
gress overrode this treaty and China again assented to the policy 
of exclusion in more rigid terms. She assents today, and has en- 
dured also the most oppressive treatment of her scholars and 
merchants seeking to enter our land. If it was wrong, as it was, 
for Germany to treat her treaty with Belgium as a scrap of paper, 


“ Tbid., p. 284; See Nevius, China and the Chinese, p. 286 f.; Denby, 
China and Her People, Vol. Il, Chap. IX. 
“Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 288. 


Pe ee es oo 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 195 


was it less wrong in principle for us to do the same with our 
Chinese treaties ? 4 

But treaty violation is not the only feature of our wrong race 
relations with the Chinese. The record of terrorism and injustice 
visited upon the Chinese who were lawfully in the United States, 
was a record of racial shame. As Kok An Wee writes in his 
thesis on The Status of the Chinese in the United States: 


“The Chinese were beaten in the streets, plundered by superior 
numbers, and burdened with excessive taxes; but they could not 
refuse these buffets, for they had no suffrage to protect them, and 
were not recognised as equals in the courts. They were sneered 
at as cheap labourers, but nothing was said of the Italians, the 
Hungarians, and the Norwegians who were paid less. They were 
hated as gold exporters who made the states poor; but the pros- 
perity of the states has been partly due to them, and the benefits 
of their labour have accrued to the communities in which they 
toiled. They were scorned as pagans; but at first their teachers 
and ministers were prohibited entering here and their preacher 
was deported as a labourer. They were reviled as non-lovers of 
home, but nothing was intimated of the chance that their loved 
ones might be confronted with insult and opprobrium at the por- 
tals, because it was not stated that the wives of labourers could 
not enter with their husbands. They were shunned as diseased ; 
but no hospitals were opened to them. ‘They were denounced as 
criminals and paupers; but the statistics of jails, asylums, and 
poor-houses have shown that these places were least of all fre- 
quented by them. They were condemned as unassimilable; but 
the public schools were not opened for their attendance, and edu- 
cation and the road to citizenship was barred.” 


And again and again unoffending Chinese were slaughtered like 
rabbits and no punishment was meted out to their murderers. 
There seems to have been little or no racial antipathy against 
the Chinese at the outset. Gradually, however, they came to be 
feared. Their unassimilability, their economic efficiency, their 
mental, moral and industrial divergence, and qualities equally good 
and bad on our own side brought on a racial clash. And neither 


* China and the Far East. Paper by F. W. Williams, “A Sketch of the 
Relations Between the United States and China,” pp. 47-82. 


196 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the spirit of justice nor the spirit of love was applied to find the 
right solution of the problem. 

The history of race prejudice in America has not been confined 
to our relations with Negroes, Indians and Chinese. (1) The Ital- 
ians had for years many of the same difficulties experienced by 
the Chinese and for some of the same reasons. ‘The worst out- 
break of race animosity against them was in the Louisiana riots 
in 1894-5, which led to a long negotiation with Italy over the fail- 
ure of the State of Louisiana to punish the murderers and the in- 
ability of the national government to deal with crimes which could 
not be denied but which fell only under state jurisdiction. It was 
then that President McKinley raised the question as to whether 
the national government ought not to be equipped with all the 
power necessary to fulfill national obligations. Surely it could not 
be right, he argued, to contract national or racial obligations and 
then to set up the internal political policies of one party to the 
contract as an excuse for their violation. We would not tolerate 
such an excuse from the other race. How could we set it up for 
ourselves? Ought not races to act under codes of equal obligation 
in treaty fulfilment? (2) There has been anti-British feeling in 
the nation ever since colonial times. We have already referred to 
the part which the Scotch-Irish animosity to the English played 
in the Revolutionary War. The large number of Irish who have 
come to America since, their sense of grievance against England, 
the national sympathy of America with people under oppression, 
whether real or apparent, and the manipulation of racial antipa- 
thies for political or religious ends have helped to intensify the 
early sentiment of anti-English prejudice. The course of Great 
Britain in the Civil War °° and the nature of a great deal of the 
intercourse of the English and the American people for three 
generations aggravated this prejudice. Strong forces are at work 
today both to perpetuate and to remove it. 

The problem of race relations with the Jews will present itself 
later, and it is a Kuropean as much as an American question. It 


; See Education of Henry Adams, pp. 110-179, and A Cycle of Adams 
~Ellers. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 197 


suffices here to remind ourselves that the race clashes which we 
have known in America have been far exceeded in all the other 
continents, except perhaps South America, and that there, while 
intermarriage has mingled all the races, as will appear, there re- 
mains almost as sharp a racial cleavage between the old Spaniard 
and the Indian as between white and black in the United States. 
The history of Europe is a story of interracial struggle. It is true 
that there are no pure races there and that the struggle has been 
between races all of them inextricably mixed, but there has been 
identity enough in the amalgams to make the conflict in reality a 
conflict of race culture and ambition, languages and religions. 
Africa has been the scene of a prolonged and intricate racial 
wrestle. Many native races have been exterminated and some like 
the Bushmen are nearly gone. Dr. Stewart said he had seen only 
a few individuals: “The Bushmen have almost disappeared, hav- 
ing been hunted off the face of the earth by their enemies both 
black and white, both colours having been their inveterate ene- 
mies.” °! ‘Tribal wars, the slave trade and the great tidal wave of 
the Bantu conquests have wiped out whole peoples and altered the 
racial map of the Continent. In Asia the race struggle has been 
as old as history and as new as today—between the peoples whose 
story is recorded in the Old Testament, the shadowy tribes who 
move about in the mists of early legend, and the composite ele- 
ments now making up each Asiatic nation; between Aryan, Dra- 
vidian, Scythian, Iranian, Marathas, Brahmans, Rajputs, Mongol 
in India; between Chinese, Mongol, and Tartar in China; Jap- 
anese and Korean; Malay, Chinese, Indian, Siamese and Eurasian 
in the Malay Peninsula. It is all one long tale of race discord and 
no race has been free from it, neither Russian nor British nor 
any other.®? 

The whole story and the world’s abiding problem may be sum- 
marised in two concrete illustrations, one forgotten in fact, and 
the other officially forgotten though it stands in the centre of 
modern history. 


* Stewart, Dawn in the Dark Continent, p. 82. 
et Vambery, Western Culture in Eastern Lands, pp. 60, 79; Nundy, Indian 
Unrest, pp. 11-16; Nundy, Political Problems, Ch, III, VIL x 


198 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


1. The first is the story of the Cagots of France. Their origin 
is unknown. Some have held that they were descendants of exiled 
lepers; others that they were descendants of ancient Gauls en- 
slaved by the people who drove out the Romans; others that they 
are a remnant of the Alans, or of the Goths. Michel traces their 
settlement in southern France to the disastrous return of Charle- 
magne from his expedition into Spain and to the battle of Ronces- 
valles. Whatever their origin, however, they were for centuries, 
as Michelet terms them, “‘ the Pariahs of the West,” and their lot 
typifies the possibilities of racial antipathy and injustice. Their 
race was regarded as infamous and its members as outcasts from 
the family of mankind. 


“They were shunned and hated; were allotted separate quar- 
ters in towns, called ‘ cagoteries,’ and lived in wretched huts in 
the country distinct from the villages. Excluded from all political 
and social rights, they were only allowed to enter a church by a 
special door, and during the service a rail separated them from 
the other worshippers. Either they were altogether forbidden to 
partake of the sacrament, or the holy wafer was handed to them 
on the end of a stick, while a receptacle for holy water was re- 
served for their exclusive use. They were compelled to wear a 
distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot 
of a goose or duck (whence they were sometimes called ‘Ca- 
nards’). And so pestilential was their touch considered that it 
was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted. The 
only trades allowed them were those of butcher and carpenter, and 
their ordinary occupation was wood-cutting.” °° 


This hatred is past now and the Cagots have been readmitted to 
humanity. 

2. The other illustration is the story of the Armenians and 
- Assyrians and their expulsion from their homes in Turkey and 
Persia and their threatened racial destruction before the eyes of 
mankind. ‘The Armenians are one of the oldest Christian races 
and their Gregorian Church is one of the oldest Christian 
Churches. They lived in their Anatolian homes centuries before 


° Encyclopedia Britannica, art. on “Cagots.” See also article in Wil- 
liams’s Miscellanies, pp. 388-391. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 199 


the Turks appeared on the pages of history. Now they have been 
driven from Turkey, from their own land, and save for the terri- 
tory allowed them under Russian Soviet authority around their 
ancient seat in trans-Caucasia, the race is homeless. No doubt 
some of the Armenian revolutionaries committed crimes in the 
name of freedom. No doubt there have been dishonest Armenian 
people. No doubt the nation’s service, both through sympathy 
and national interest, and the compulsion of relationship with 
Russia and France, was thrown with the Allies in the World War. 
The case against the Armenians from the point of view of the 
Turks may be made never so black. Nevertheless these facts are 
sure: the only right of the Turk to rule over the Armenian and 
to dispossess him of his country was the right of military force; 
the Western nations were bound by treaty, by official promises 
and by every consideration of justice to provide for the Armen- 
ian race security, freedom and a national home; Great Britain 
holds the Island of Cyprus under a convention with Turkey in 
which the first article declared, “ H. I. M. the Sultan promises to 
England to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later 
between the two powers, into the Government and for the pro- 
tection of the Christians and other subjects of the Porte in these 
territories (Armenia) and in order to enable England to make 
necessary provision for executing her engagements, H. I. M. the 
Sultan further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be 
occupied and administered by England”; France took Cilicia 
under mandate from the League of Nations and used Armenian 
troops to hold it and then instead of returning it to the League or 
transferring it to the Armenians for their home, betrayed its 
Armenian allies and delivered Cilicia to Turkey. And then on 
January 10, 1923, surely one of the blackest days in human his- 
tory, the great Powers of Europe at Lausanne listened to the 
representatives of the Turks, 7,500,000 in number, scattered over 
a country which they had wrested from its original and surviving 
racial owners, larger in area than France or Germany, as these 
representatives announced that Turkey intended to expel all 
Greeks and Armenians from Turkey except, for the present, from 


200 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Constantinople.54 Here the racial question brought in Greeks as 
well as Armenians, but the lesson of the tragedy of race discord 
is the same, and worse; and became only ampler in volume and 
involved more innocent people on both sides of the racial lines, 
when it was proposed, as part of a wholesale migration, exalting 
the idea of racial antipathy to the very skies, that 450,000 Turks 
must also be torn and exiled from their homes in Macedonia and 
the rest of Greece. Obviously the race problem is too great for 
man.°> For the solution of expulsion is no solution. Greek and 
Armenian blood is running thick in Turkish veins. Can that be 
expelled? Turkey’s own prosperity has received as heavy a blow 
as she has given the races she has wronged. “Of 48 Grand 
Viziers of note during four centuries,’ says Prof. Porter, of 
Beirut, “only twelve were of Turkish ancestry, the others were 
Armenian or Greek by descent. The Turks have had to depend 
on these races for their business and finance and in destroying 
them they are bringing upon themselves financial ruin.” The 
Turks are to be pitied. Across the centuries they have suffered as 
well as inflicted wrong and now in the effort at self preservation 
and assertion they are exchanging for exploitation by the Western 
races what might have been made under a right solution of racial 
problems a happy co-operation of races in a transformed Turkish 
Empire. Only it could not have been transformed and remained 
Moslem.*® 

The Near East tragedy is also one evidence of the inevitable 
association of race antipathy or misunderstanding and war. 
There is too much warrant in history for the view which is com- 
mon among students of race relationships that these relationships 


* New York Times, Jan. 11, 1923. 

* Bryce, The Treatment of the Armenians, Blue Book No. 31, 1916, Re- 
construction in Turkey, edited by William H. Hall; Report of International 
Commission to Inquire into the Cause and Conduct of the Balkan Wars; 
Crabites, Armenia and the Armenians; Dowling, The Armenian Church; 
Greene, Leavening the Levant, pp. 33-48; Speer, Missions and Modern His- 
tory, Vol. II, Chap. IX, and authorities cited there. For the Turkish side 
of the case see the New York Times, Current History, Feb., 1923, pp. 749- 
764; June, 1923, pp. 393-400; Djemal Pasha, Memoirs of a Turkish States- 
man, pp. 241-302. 

* Toynbee, The Western Question in Greece and Turkey; Reconstruction 
in Turkey; Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, 





THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 201 


must be construed in terms of conflict, economic and social al- 
ways, and if necessary, military. It is impossible to draw a clear 
line between race and nationality, and much may be charged to 
race which is really due to a false development of the spirit of 
nationalism. ‘The World War was not a race war at all. Kindred 
races were on opposite sides and races between which the deepest 
antipathies are supposed to exist were on the same side. In the 
Civil War also, though the status of the Negro race was one of 
the issues, the war was between two sections of what was then and 
is still, the most homogeneous race in the world. Nevertheless 
race prejudices are the cause, or are intertwined with the causes, 
of war. The spirit of brotherhood and the ideal of humanity, 
if they were dominant over race alienation, would find a way 
without war to settle disagreements which can be settled by peace- 
able means and would prevent the development of any other kind 
of disagreement. If we can solve the problem of race we shall 
prevent war. It is conceivable that wrongs within a race might 
still lead to revolution, but it is not probable that in a world of 
inter-racial good will and justice there would be any root of war 
left inside any race. Consider what we have paid in the world 
war alone for our failure to have solved the race problem. The 
Staggering Burden of Armament, published by the World Peace 
Foundation, summarises the cost of the last war, under the head- 
ing “ The Doom of the Taxpayer ”: 


“The financial aspect of armament may properly be first con- 
sidered in connection with the world war. The total direct cost 
of the war, not counting interest charges, is officially given at 
$186,000,000,000 for all belligerents. The capitalised value of 
human life destroyed, soldiers and civilians, on a conservative 
basis is given as $67,102,552,560. ‘The claims for damages against 
Germany, constituting part of the price she pays for the privilege 
of using her armament, preferred under the treaty of Versailles by 
the parties thereto as officially reported to the Reparation Com- 
mission, but without review, was $47,639,092,718, or about a bil- 
lion a month for the duration of the war. Shipping and cargo 
losses are given as $6,800,000,000; loss of production at $45,- 
000,000,000; war relief and loss to neutrals at $2,750,000,000. 
These figures total $355,291,719,815. 


202 


RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“Tt may roughly be said that $350,000,000,000 is the financial 
handicap that the world has taken on since 1914. 

“The loss of life is given in a compilation of the Danish Re- 
search Society on the Social Results of the War as follows: 


Germany 
Austria-Hungary .. 
Gt. Britain, Ireland. 
France 
Belgium 


Italy 


Bulgaria 
Rumania 
Servia 

Europe 


Loss Among 

Through Those 

Dec. in Inc. of Killed 

Birth Rate. Death Rate. in War. 
i's cae oa 3,600,000 2,700,000 2,000,000 
3,800,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 
850,000 1,000,000 800,000 
CREE AE an 1,500,000 1,840,000 1,400,000 
RR ay mse Pur 175,000 400,000 115,000 
al SHEN aa te oak Ae 1,400,000 880,000 600,000 
AE Aa ME a 155,000 130,000 65,000 
DOL Ramee 150,000 360,000 159,000 
aN ue racccily 'at 320,000 1,330,000 690,000 
Rye DAUR 8,300,000 4,700,000 2,500,000 
Russia and Poland. 20,250,000 15,130,000 9,829,000 


“The worst of these percentages is not their size. ‘The worst of 
it is that these post-war figures would only be cut about 15 per 


cent. 1f the world returned to its former habits. 


The United 


States, which just now is setting the pace in armament compe- 
tition used to spend more than 70 per cent. of its total annual 
budget for war purposes, not in a single year only, but on the | 
basis of the running of the government since 18/0. Here are the 


figures: 
EXPENDITURES FOR ARMED PEACE AND WAR. 
1870-1916, 1870-1919, 
Omitting Spanish- Including Spanish- 
American and American and 
World Wars. World Wars. 
47 years. 50 years. 
PAU! dota a MR $3,956,346,000 $19,334,031 ,000 
BS ARVIN sie eal ohn 2,594,530,000 6,229,612,000 
Interests. 6.4 £v2,455,865,000 3,294,001 ,000 
Penstons 3.) 2 4,906,803,000 5,469,874,000 
$13,913,544,000—71.5  $34,327,578,000—76.4 
All other pur- 
poses 5,543,727 ,000—28.5 10,672,148,000—23.6 
Total ......$19,457,271,000—100.0 $44,937,065,000—100.0 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 203 


“The burden of this debt brings it about that every belligerent 
has such staggering taxation as to hamper all the processes of 
national and individual life.” °? 


The price which the world has paid and pays today for race 
misunderstanding and suspicion and conflict and maladjustment, 
if the race problem be soluble, proves either the incompetence or 
the iniquity or the insanity of mankind. | 

There are other forms of racial struggle which fall short of 
war, but which are full of political peril and fruitful of social evil. 
There may be good purpose in some of these and there may be real 
evils with which they endeavour to deal, but nevertheless they may 
be cast in forms of secrecy and violence which make open and 
righteous settlements impossible. The Ku Klux Klan in its pres- 
ent revival is an illustration. And the utterances of its spokesmen 
show the mixture of good and evil in it. An “ Exalted Cyclops ” 
spoke in a church in Newark, N. J., on March 11, 1923: 


“ This is a white man’s organisation for exalting the Caucasian 
race and teaching the doctrine of white supremacy. ‘This does not 
mean, as some would have you believe, that we are enemies of 
the coloured and mongrel races, but does mean that we are organ- 
ised to maintain the solidarity of the white race. 

“This is a Gentile organisation, and as such has as its mission, 
the interpretation of the highest ideals of the white Gentile people. 
However, we sing no hymns of hate against the Jew. 

“Tt is a Protestant organisation, and its membership is re- 
stricted to those who accept the tenets of true Christianity, which 
is essentially Protestant. We can say to the world that our fathers 
founded this as a Protestant country and our purpose is to estab- 
lish and maintain it as such. While we will support energetically 
the principles of Protestantism, we will also maintain the principle 
of religious liberty as essential for the future growth and develop- 
ment of this country.” °° 


But the movement speaks with a more malicious voice. ‘The “ Im- 
perial Wizard” is reported in the Klan paper as saying, in an 
address on April 30, 1923,— 


7 See also Col. Ayres’s The War with Germany, a Statistical Summary 
published by the War Department. 
* Reported in the New York Times, March 12, 1923, 


204 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“America is a garbage can, not a melting pot. . . . When 
the hordes of aliens walk to the ballot box and their votes out- 
number yours, then that horde has got you by the throat. All of 
these folks of colour can take their place—they had better take it 
and stay in it when they get init. . . . J am informed that every 
buck nigger in Atlanta who attains the age of twenty-one years 
has gotten the money to pay his poll tax and register, and that 
6,000,000 of them are now ready to vote, and that these apes are 
going to line up at the polls, mixed up there with white men and 
white women. Lord forgive me, but that is the most sickening 
and disgusting sight you ever saw. You’ve got to change that. 

Keep the Negro and the other fellow where he belongs. 
They have got no part in our political and social life. . . . To 
assure the supremacy of the white race we believe in the exclusion 
of the yellow race and the disfranchisement of the Negro. It was 
God’s act to make the white race superior to all others. By some 
scheme of Providence the Negro was created a serf.” °° 


With such inspiration still others commit themselves openly to 
doctrines of race and religious hate and exclusiveness. One. 
writes : 


“The American Idea resists and expels the Jew, the Roman 
Catholic and the Negro, because their character is antagonistic to 
the principle of Americanism. 

“The Negro is the son of Ham, whose rightful heritage and 
natural habitat is Africa. He was torn from his native soil, 
brought to this country and sold into slavery, through sinister 
papal intrigue. The error of importing the Negro into America 
can be corrected only by his return to Africa. 

“The presence of these three foreign elements, the Jew, the 
Roman Catholic and the Negro, in any portion of this hemisphere, 
is incompatible with the peace and safety of America, with her 
dignity as the spiritual leader of the world, and with her prophe- 
sied destiny to be the Kingdom of God ‘on earth as it is in 
heaven:”)); 

“ The (Protestant) American people have banded themselves 
together in secret organisation, with the avowed and fixed purpose 
to drive everyone of these aliens—Roman Catholics, and their 
allies, the Jews and Negroes—from our midst.” °° 


® Quoted in New York Christian Advocate, Dec. 14, 1922. 
© Quoted in Federal Council Bulletin, Feb. -March, 1923. See The Coun- 
try Editor, Feb., 1923, art. “ The World Wide Vision of the Ku Klux 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 205 


Such intolerance is the destruction of liberty in the name of lib- 
erty. There ought to be religious and racial freedom. If the 
Roman Catholic Church were to attempt ecclesiastical domination, 
as it established it in other times and other lands, it would be 
necessary to resist and defeat it. If Jew or Negro were to at- 
tempt, in the case of the Jew, financial domination, or in the case 
of the Negro, any usurpation of rights which do not politically or 
socially belong to him, the rest of society would be justified in 
taking the measures appropriate to its protection. But race and 
religious injustice are not the right way to prevent the supposed 
threat of such injustice. They only invite and instigate it. 

Still another evil expression of racial strife is our atrocious in- 
stitution of lynching. It is not wholly an inter-race crime. In 
1922 there were 5/7 lynchings in the United States, of which 
fifty-one were Negroes and six white. They occurred in ten 
states, all southern: 18 in Texas, 11 in Georgia, 9 in Mississippi, 
etc. The year 1923 showed great progress in the repression of 
lynching. In 39 states no lynchings occurred that year. Nine 
states bore the shame of the 28 lynchings which took place. For 
the first time since comprehensive records of lynchings have been 
kept, South Carolina and Alabama were free from the crime. 
The number of lynchings in 1923 was the lowest in any year 
recorded. The next lowest was 38 in 1917, and the highest 253 
in 1892, when there were lynchings in 33 states. Of the 28 lynch- 
ings in 1923, 26 of the victims were Negroes, two being women.® 
Between 1885 and 1922, the number of persons lynched, always 
by mobs, was 4,154. 


“Of the total number lynched during this period, 1,034 were 
white and 3,120 were Negro victims. Doubtless many more of 
whom no record was made were similarly murdered. In 1919 
there were 83 persons lynched ; in 1920 there were 61; in 1921, 64; 
and in 1922 there were at least 57 lynched. 

“Some of those lynched by mobs were charged with crime; 
many of them were charged with misdemeanors only; some only 


Klan”; March, 1923, art. “Proposed Overthrow of the United States 
Government.” 
* See a slightly variant report in The Christian Work, Jan. 5, 1924, p. 3. 


206 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


with words or acts which are nowhere at any time punishable by 
law. All were slain without trial where they might have faced 
their accusers, had witnesses and had the evidence considered by 
a lawful judge or jury. The frenzied mob was judge, jury, and 
executioner. 

“In many cases persons not sought by the mobs have been 
lynched by mistake, so wild and savage has been the procedure. 
Some of the victims suffered indescribable torture, such as satura- 
tion of parts of the body with kerosene or gasoline so that they 
could be burned piecemeal, branding with hot irons, or the goug- 
ing out of the eyes and ears with red hot rods. 

“The states free from this blot are few in number. There are 
only four—Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and 
Vermont—where such an atrocity has not been recorded for any 
community in the Commonwealth. 

“Rape is usually alleged as the principal cause of lynchings. 
Certainly such a crime could not be attributed to the 83 women 
victims! As a matter of fact nearly four-fifths of all the lynch- 
ings in thirty-seven years have been for alleged crimes other than 
rape or for alleged acts that are not crimes or misdemeanors 
under any law, common or statute. 

“Out of 4,097 victims only 829—60 white and 769 Negroes— 
were lynched on the charge of rape or attempted rape. This is 
only 20.2 per cent. of the total. And it should be remembered 
that these men had been accused, not convicted, of the crime. 

“More than one-third of the victims lynched since 1889 were 
accused of homicide or felonious assault. About one-twelfth 
were accused of crime against property; some were alleged to 
have ‘insulted’ white persons; and more than 145 were not re- 
corded as accused of any crime whatsoever. 

“Mob law undermines the very foundations of government, 
law and order.” © 


The poison of race passions creeps back into the hating race. 
If white people can do wrong to Negroes, why should they not do 
wrong also to their own race? Mob violence against black men is 
a sure school for contempt of law among the whites. All race 
injustice has its Nemesis. ‘ Mob law is anarchy,” says an edito- 
rial in the Louisville, Ky., Times. “It brutalises the community. 


° New York Times, Jan. 1, 1923; Federal Council Bulletin, Feb.-March, 
1923; “Mob Murder in America,” published by the Commission on the 
Church and Race Relations of the Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 207 


It lowers the standards of whites and blacks. It discourages the 
ambitions of Negroes to be good citizens. It is anarchy and has 
no place in civilisation.” And the Christian South is resolved to 
suppress it utterly.°? The Christian women of the South, more- 
over, refuse to allow the crime to take shelter behind the plea of 
chivalry. One of the strongest of their deliverances is from the 
representative women of South Carolina: 


“ Believing that the double standard of morals, in regard to 
races as well as sex, is a quicksand which threatens to undermine 
our civilisation, we appeal for the creation of a public sentiment 
which will no longer tolerate this condition; but which will de- 
mand protection for all womanhood. 

“There is no crime more dangerous than that which strikes at 
the root of constituted authority, breaks all restraints of civilisa- 
tion, and substitutes mob violence and masked irresponsibility for 
established justice. There is no greater fallacy than that which 
holds up the shield of Southern womanhood in defense of the 
crime of lynching and burning of human beings, claiming that 
such acts are the outcome of Southern chivalry. 

“Therefore, we utterly repudiate such sentiments and condemn 
such practices and recommend that all people give themselves to 
a definite study of these vital matters relating to justice and right- 
eousness, and that the press, pulpit, platform, and school, as well 
as the potent influence of the home, be used unsparingly to lead 
public opinion to insure justice and compel the protection and 
purity of both races.” ® 


Stronger language with regard to lynching could hardly be used 
than that of a recent Georgia Baptist Convention, declaring that 
lynching “is a cancer on our body politic and a disgrace to our 
Christian civilisation. The Christian church, surely our own, must 
sound the knell to anarchy in all its forms; but more especially 
when a band of men arrogate to themselves the right to become 
government, court, jury, witnesses, and thus proceed to commit 
murder. It is diabolical. It is hellish. It puts government, so- 


* See resolution of southern women, Fisk University News, Oct., 1923, 


D2 vite 
“The Southern Workman, Feb., 1923, p. 56 f. 


208 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ciety, and the church at the mercy of the hobgoblins of the under- 
world. We must admit of no exceptions. There are none.” © 
The evil that lies back of all others in the abuses of race is the 
fundamental evil of race assumption and privilege, the idea of a 
race that it has a right of prescriptive precedence over other races, 
a false pride in the sense of superior race culture, the conception 
of aristocratic race-values entitling one race to dominate other 
races, the spirit of race suspicion and distrust, the application to 
race relations of the principle of gain and exploitation rather than 
of use and trusteeship and brotherhood. Feelings like these and 
the institutions which support them or which they support are bad 
for all races. They embitter the races which feel themselves to 
be wronged and they embitter the races which are accused by 
other races or by their own consciences of wrongdoing. Hate and 
evil engender themselves. As Dewey says: “ The disdain and con- 
tempt of the overlord class for the inferior is moreover usually 
complicated by an uneasy subconscious feeling that perhaps the 
subject people is not really so inferior as its political status indi- 
cates.” And this begets more dislike and fear. These evils are 
not limited to any one race or set of race relationships. Some of 
them characterised even the professed communism of the Russian 
Soviet. The Indians are prone to charge such evils against the 
British in India,®® but some of these very evils are found in the 
most enlightened intelligence of India. Under the cry of “ Bande 
Mataram,” “ Hail Motherland,” the doctrine of race superiority 
has been preached in India as eloquently as in the West. The 
Ethiopian movement in South Africa has made use of the same 
shibboleths against the whites with which we have dealt in Amer- 
ica in our discussions of the subject of Chinese and Japanese im- 
migration. To get rid of the evils of race friction and conflict we 


S010. (Dp. 107. 


See C. R. Jain, Where the Shoe Pinches, p. 17 £., for typical illustra- 
tion: “To sum up: The British rule is unpopular (1) because of the 
tyranny and injustice that are practiced in its name and under its shelter 
by the subordinate officials and their satellites, (2) because of the indiffer- 
ence and inefficiency of the higher officials, (3) because of the loss of faith 
in the administration of justice, and (4) because of the offensive behaviour 
of certain Europeans.” 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 209 


must go behind them to the fountains and establish in men’s minds 
right thoughts about race relations and right feelings toward all 
their fellow men irrespective of their colour or race and secure the 
establishment of the economic and political ideals and relationships 
which will remove the cancer of race friction and injustice. 
Abraham Lincoln is proof that spiritually this can be done, that 
the problem of race is not too great for the mind and spirit of 
men who seek to know and obey the laws of God. “In all my 
interviews with Mr. Lincoln,” said Frederick Douglass, “I was 
impressed with his entire freedom from popular prejudice against 
the coloured race. He was the first great man that I talked with 
in the United States freely, who in no single instance reminded 
me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference 
of colour and I thought that all the more remarkable because he 
came from a state where there were black laws.” ® Lincoln 
never supposed that he had solved the race problem. He knew 
that slavery was only one aspect of it and that the abolition of 
slavery created more problems than it solved, and he felt the 
deepest anxiety over the innumerable aspects of the great ques- 
tions which remained. Before the war he had not been ready for 
Negro franchise. In 1853 in a campaign letter he wrote: “I go 
for all sharing the privilege of government who assist in bearing 
its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the 
right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means exclud- 
ing females.” In 1854 he said, “ Labour is prior to and inde- 
pendent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labour and could 
never have existed if labour had not first existed. Labour is the 
support of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.” 
Utterances like these led on, however, to his statement in his last 
public declaration that he was in favour of extending the elective 
franchise to coloured men.®* How he would have changed the 
conditions of its extension we do not know. He believed in equal- 
ity. In 1855 he said, “ Our progress in degeneracy appears to me 
to be pretty rapid. Asa nation we began by declaring that all men 


Reminiscences of Lincoln, p. 193. 
ibid. p.lZ9 f: 


210 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


are created equal. We now practically read it all men are created 
equal except Negroes.’ Later we enlarged the exception to ex- 
clude all but the Nordic race! At the same time he saw the com- 
ing issues and General Butler tells of a conversation in which 
Lincoln indicated his anxiety for some solution.®® And yet Lin- 
coln had found, and he himself was, the solution of the race prob- 
lem, the hope and the assurance of the escape of men from the 
evils of race friction and injustice. By the facts of sympathy and 
brotherhood and truth he evaded or denied none of the facts of 
race difference or human inequality; he proposed no doctrinaire 
scheme of equalitarianism or amalgamation; nor did he, on the 
other hand, erect any walls of forbidden advance against any 
human beings nor set up the generalised abstraction of race char- 
acter against capacity or virtue. With him, as with Burns, man 
was man. ‘here are realities in all human intercourse—affinities, 
conventions, working arrangements for human happiness and 
well-being and progress. We must come soon to consider these. 
But the final thought with which this chapter leaves us is the 
thought of man as man, brother and friend to every other man, 
and transcending in this good will and helpfulness all the gulfs 
and chasms of race. 


“Then let us pray that come it may 

As come it will for a’ that,— 

That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth, 
May bear the gree, and a’ that. 

For a’ that, and a’ that, 
It’s coming yet for a’ that,— 

That man to man, the warld o’er 
Shall brothers be for a’ that.” 


Mr. Mornay Williams has written a prayer which we might all 
profitably use: 


“O God, who hast made man in Thine own likeness and who 
dost love all whom Thou hast made, suffer us not because of 
differences in race, colour, or condition, to separate ourselves one 


© Tbid., p. 151 ff. 


THE EVILS AND ABUSES OF RACE 211 


from another, and thereby from Thee: but teach us the unity of 
Thy family and the universality of Thy love. As Thy Son, our 
Saviour, was born of a Hebrew mother and ministered first to 
His brethren of the House of Israel, but rejoiced in the faith of 
a Syro-Phcenician woman and of a Roman soldier, and suffered 
His cross to be carried by a man of Africa, teach us also, while 
loving and serving our own, to enter into the communion of the 
whole human family: and forbid it that from pride of birth and 
hardness of heart we should despise any for whom Christ died, 
or injure any in whom He lives. Amen.” 7° 


And one of our American denominations, the Reformed Church 
in the United States, has a special prayer for these needs: “ From 
the sins that divide us; from all class bitterness and race hatred ; 
from forgetfulness of Thee and indifference to our fellowmen; 
from war and the preparation for new wars; Good Lord, deliver 
us. From the corruption of the franchise and of civil govern- 
ment; from greed and hardness of heart against our neighbour ; 
from the arbitrary exercise of power; Good Lord, deliver us.” 


Williams, Prayers and Hymns, p. 3. 


V 
ASPECTS AND RELATIONS’ OF RACE 


HE race question, as has appeared, is a question not of the 
relation of race to race only, but also of the relation of 
race to colour, climate, nationality, religion, language, com- 

munications and social and moral ideals. We shall be better pre- 
pared to consider the various proposed solutions of the race 
problem if we first examine some of these conditioning elements. 
1. Race and colour. The criterion of race now most commonly 
used is colour. Head measurements and indices of one kind and 
another have proved too confusing and erratic. Colour has 
seemed to be a simple and more accurate differential. And many 
of the modern race studies accordingly have resolved the race 
issue into a colour issue. Some of these, as we have seen, have 
gone so far as to talk of “white” and “black” blood, and less 
sophisticated peoples have conceived God as of their favourite 
racial complexion. Even Charles Carroll argued that since man 
was created in God’s image, and as God was not a Negro, it fol- 
lowed that the Negro was not made after the image of God and 
therefore was not a man.’ For the most part, however, colour is 
simply used as a synonym for race, and deep issues which are 
cultural or political or national are carelessly identified with col- 
our, as by Lord Chelmsford, ex-Viceroy of India, for example, in 
a speech in Parliament on conditions in India in which he said 
that “the real root of all the unrest and agitation in India was the 
race or colour issue.’”’ And he proceeded in the strain now grown 
so familiar to us: “ There was a revolt of the coloured races going 
on all over the world against the ascendency of the white races. 
But though it was not merely an Indian problem, it met them in 
almost every Indian question which came up—it was an all- 


The Presbyterian Magazine, May, 1923, p. 269. 
FAW 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 213 


pervading issue. Two consequences had flowed from this. In 
the past we governed India on the basis of the acknowledged su- 
periority of the British race. That superiority was now chal- 
lenged, and in surveying the situation, they could not ignore that 
the challenge had been made. The colour issue had become a 
unifying force in India, and through all the diversity of creeds 
and races, it was creating union.” ? 

Two separate questions emerge. What is the relation of colour 
to race? What is the relation of colour to race prejudice? 

a. Modern physiology is assured that colour is a matter not of 
race plasm or fixed heredity, but of climatic environment.* Von 
Luschan objects to racial classification on the basis of colour. 


“We now know,” he says, perhaps forgetting the F:skimos, 
“that colour of skin and hair is only the effect of environment, 
and that we are fair only because our ancestors lived for thou- 
sands, or probably tens of thousands, of years in sunless and 
foggy countries. Fairness is nothing else but lack of pigment, 
and our ancestors lost part of their pigment because they did not 
need it. Just as the Proteus sanguineus and certain beetles be- 
came blind in caves, where their eyes were useless, so we poor fair 
people have to wear dark glasses and gloves when walking on 
a glacier and get our skin burned when we expose it unduly to 
the light of the sun. 

“It is therefore only natural that certain Indian races and the 
‘ Singhalese are dark; and it would be absurd to call them * sav- 
age’ on that account, as they have an ancient civilisation, and had 
a noble and refined religion at a time when our own ancestors had 
a very low standard of life. 

“It is also said of the primitive races that they are not as cleanly 
as we are. Those who say this, however, forget the dirt of east- 
ern Europe, and are ignorant that most primitive men bathe every 
day, and that the Bantu and many other Africans clean their teeth 
after every meal for more than half an hour with their msuaki, 
while on the contrary, millions of Europeans never use a tooth 
brush,” 4 


And another speaker at the Universal Races Congress, Pro- 


? The Times of India, Nov. 17, 1921. 
® Dixon, The Racial History of Man, pp. 478-480. 
* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 14. 


214 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


fessor Lyde, Professor of Economic Geography at University 
College, London, declared: 


“There is no doubt that difference of skin-colour is one of 
the greatest ‘racial’ barriers, and yet there can be little doubt 
that it is entirely a matter of climatic control. . . . The funda- 
mental differences of skin-colour between the black tropical and 
the white temperate types of man are, therefore, of purely climatic 
origin, the climatic influence working both directly from without 
and indirectly through the different relative activities of lungs and 
intestines, the tropical climate throwing on the skin and the in- 
testines work which the temperate climate throws on the lungs. 
The consequent increased activity of the lungs, in the presence of 
relatively little sun-light and sun-heat, favours the lighter colour 
of skin, while the increased activity of the liver and other intes- 
tines, in the presence of relatively great sun-light and sun-heat, 
favours the darker colour. Under these circumstances it seems 
obvious that, whatever the value or the worthlessness of skin 
colour as a test of ‘ race,’ it is enormously the most important con- 
sideration in the climatic distribution of man.’ ® 


Colour as colour is purely a matter of the skin, not a matter of 
racial character, and even as a differentiating mark it is very in- 
accurate and misleading. There are many Negroes with “ white ” 
blood in their veins, who are fixed by our present idea within the 
Negro race, who are nevertheless much fairer than many Cau- 
casians. Unless it was known by some other evidence that they 
were not pure white people, their colour would not mark their 
race. The futility of colour as a race sign, save in the crudest 
fashion, is undeniable. The India Census Report of 1901 deals 
with this fact: 


“For ethnological purposes physical characters may be said to 
be of two kinds, indefinite characters which can only be described 
in more or less appropriate language, and definite characters which 
admit of being measured and reduced to numerical expression. 
The former class, usually called descriptive or secondary char- 
acters, includes such points as the colour and texture of the skin; 
the colour, form and position of the eyes; the colour and character 
of the hair; and the form of the face and features. Conspicuous 


* Jbid., paper on “ Climatic Control of Skin Colour,” p. 104. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 215 


as these traits are, the difficulty of observing, defining, and record- 
ing them is extreme. Colour, the most striking of them all, is 
perhaps the most evasive, and deserves further mention as a typ- 
ical instance of the shortcomings of the descriptive method. Some 
forty years ago the French anthropologist Broca devised a chro- 
matic scale consisting of twenty shades, regularly graduated and 
numbered, for registering the colour of the eyes and thirty-four 
for the skin. The idea was that the observer would consult the 
scale and note the numbers of the shades which he found to cor- 
respond most closely with the colouring of his subjects. Experi- 
ence, however, has shown that with a scale so elaborate as Broca’s 
the process of matching colours is not so easy as it looks; that 
different people are apt to arrive at widely different conclusions ; 
and that even when the numbers have been correctly registered no 
one can translate the result of the observations into intelligible 
language. For these reasons Broca’s successor, Topinard, re- 
verted to the method of simple description, unaided by any scale 
of pattern colours. He describes, for example, the mud-coloured 
hair so common among the peasants of Central Europe as having 
the colour of a dusty chestnut. In the latest edition of the Anthro- 
pological Notes and Queries published under the auspices of the 
British Association an attempt is made to combine the two sys- 
tems. A greatly simplified colour scale is given, and each colour 
is also briefly described. This method is being used in the Ethno- 
graphic Survey of India for recording the colour of the skin, but 
I do not expect it to yield very satisfactory results, and I doubt 
whether it is possible to do more than describe very generally the 
impression which a particular colour makes upon the observer. 
In point of fact the colour of the skin is rather what may be called 
an artistic expression, dependent partly upon the action of light, 
partly on the texture and transparency of the skin itself and partly 
again on the great variety of shades which occur in every part of 
its surface. It is hopeless to expect that this complex of char- 
acters can be adequately represented by a patch of opaque paint 
which is necessarily uniform throughout and devoid of any sug- 
gestion of light and shade. 

“The difficulty which besets all attempts to classify colour is 
enhanced in India by the fact that for the bulk of the population, 
the range of variation, especially in the case of the eyes and hair, 
is exceedingly small. The skin no doubt exhibits extreme di- 
vergences of colouring which any one can detect at a glance. At 
one end of the scale we have the dead black of the Andamanese, 
the colour of a black-leaded stove before it has been polished, and 


216 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the somewhat brighter black of the Dravidians of Southern India, 
which has been aptly compared to the colour of strong coffee un- 
mixed with milk. Of the Irulas of the Nilgri jungles some South 
India humourist is reported to have said that charcoal leaves a 
white mark upon them. At the other end one may place the 
flushed ivory skin of the traditional Kashmiri beauty and the very 
light transparent brown—‘ wheat coloured’ is the common ver- 
nacular description—of the higher castes of Upper India, which 
Emil Schmidt compares to milk just tinged with coffee and de- 
scribes as hardly darker than is met with in members of the 
swarthier races of Southern Europe. Between these extremes we 
find countless shades of brown, darker or lighter, transparent or 
opaque, frequently tending towards yellow, more rarely approach- 
ing a reddish tint, and occasionally degenerating into a sort of 
greyish black which seems to depend on the character of the sur- 
face of the skin. It would be a hopeless task to register and 
classify these variations. Nor, if it were done, should we be in a 
position to evolve order out of the chaos of tints. For even in the 
individual minute gradations of colour are comparatively un- 
stable, and are liable to be affected not only by exposure to sun and 
wind but also by differences of temperature and humidity. Na- 
tives of Bengal have assured me that people of their race, one of 
the darkest in India, become appreciably fairer when domiciled in 
Hindustan or the Punjab, and the converse process may be ob- 
served not only in natives of Upper India living in the damp heat 
of the Ganges delta, but in Indians returning from a prolonged 
stay in Europe, who undergo a perceptible change of colour dur- 
ing the voyage to the East. The fair complexion of the women of 
the shell-cutting Sankari caste in Dacca is mainly due to their 
seclusion in dark rooms, and the Lingayats of Southern India who 
wear a box containing a tiny phallus tied in a silk cloth round the 
upper arm, show, when they take it off, a pale band of skin con- 
trasting sharply with the colour of the rest of the body.” ® 


“Tt cannot be doubted,” says Finot, “that colour is the direct 
effect of the environment. ‘A fair person (Virchow tells us) 
placed in a certain environment becomes brown and vice versa.’ ” * 
A man of the black race may be white, a white man brown, a 
brown man yellow, a yellow man black. Colour is a variable 
incident of race. 


* Census of India, 1901, Vol. I, p. 490. 
*Finot, Race Prejudice, p. 104. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 217 


b. Is colour, then, the ground of face aversion or, as is some- 
times alleged, the cause of race antipathy? There does not appear 
to have been any colour prejudice among the ancients. No em- 
phasis appears to have been laid on physical differences. Today, 
however, the physical differences, and especially colour, are set 
forth as the chief basis of racial alienation. Professor Park says: 


“The chief obstacles to the assimilation of the Negro and the 
Oriental are not mental but physical traits. It is not because the 
Negro and the Japanese are so differently constituted that they do 
not assimilate. If they were given an opportunity, the Japanese 
are quite as capable as the Italians, the Armenians, or the Slavs of 
acquiring our culture and sharing our national ideals. The trouble 
is not with the Japanese mind, but with the Japanese skin. The 
Jap is not the right colour. 

“The fact that the Japanese bears in his features a distinctive 
racial hallmark, that he wears, so to speak, a racial uniform, 
classifies him. He cannot become a mere individual, indistinguish- 
able in the cosmopolitan mass of the population, as is true, for 
example, of the Irish, and, to a lesser extent, of some of the other 
immigrant races. The Japanese, like the Negro, is condemned to 
remain among us as abstraction, a symbol—and a symbol not 
merely of his own race but of the Orient and of that vague, ill- 
defined menace we sometimes refer to as the ‘ yellow peril.’ This 
not only determines to a very large extent the attitude of the white 
world toward the yellow man but it determines the attitude of the 
yellow man toward the white. It puts between the races the in- 
visible but very real gulf of self-consciousness.”’ § 


Mr. Weale also finds in colour the cause of race prejudice: 
“There is one thing which can never be altered, and that is colour. 
For here is the real root of the racial difficulty throughout the 
world. There exists a widespread racial antipathy founded on 
colour—an animal-like instinct, if you will, but an instinct which 
must remain in existence until the world becomes Utopia. It is 
this instinct which seems to forbid really frank intercourse and 
equal treatment.” ® 

There is a curious support given to this view by the inner social 





8 Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology, p. 760. 
° The Conflict of Colour, p. 110. 


218 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


prejudice of the race whose leaders most strenuously resent the 
idea of colour discrimination. A Negro writes of them: 


“Social prejudices are not confined to colour or races; they 
pervade all segments of society, and enter into all the ramifications 
of human life. Nowhere are they more intense and unreasonable 
than among the Negroes themselves, who have established within 
their own ranks innumerable social distinctions which, strange to 
say, are based solely on colour. For example, in many sections, 
light-hued Negroes associate together, and hold themselves as 
much aloof from contact with the blacks as do the most exclusive 
whites. In fact, there exists among these people a graduated 
series of colour distinctions, with the blackest constituting the 
base, and the fairest the apex, of the social column. But, though 
there is neither logic nor sense in discriminations based on vari- 
ations of racial colour, nevertheless these social antipathies of the 
freedmen are as pronounced in character and as relentless in effect 
as those which their most inveterate white enemies have shown.” 7° 


But this same writer proceeds to deny the validity of the view 
that colour is the cause of antipathy: 


“ Colour, we insist,” he says, “is merely the incident, and not 
the foundation, of prejudice. Ample verification of this is af- 
forded, by the low class of whites who inhabit our Southern states, 
and whose condition is infinitely inferior to that of the lowest 
plantation Negro, both as to opportunity for work, means of liv- 
ing, and social recognition on the part of a superior oversight. 
These people are white, and of the same race as their oppressors, 
nevertheless their colour neither alleviates their distresses, nor 
furnishes an avenue of escape from domination. . . . That race 
prejudices exist no sane man denies, but that colour is the prime 
cause of American prejudice against Negroes is not to be believed 
for one moment. Eivery shred of authentic evidence disproves 
conclusions so preposterous. Abstractly considered, black and 
white are negative colours, neither of which has any inherent su- 
periority over the other. Whence, then, comes race prejudice? 
Simply through a concatenation of circumstances, by which the 
black represents an enslaved, and white a master class; and as a 
servile race is always a despised people, the logical and inevitable 
sequence of Negro bondage was to create an aversion for black, 


Thomas, The American Negro, p. 292. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 219 


not on its own account, but solely because it was the chief visible 
badge of personal degradation.” 


The fact probably is that colour, as the most conspicuous of all 
racial characteristics, is the easiest and most natural thing to sug- 
gest, and to be made the object of, the expression of race feeling. 
But, also, because it is a matter entirely of the skin and not of the 
character of a man or of a race, it is entirely feasible for races and 
individuals to be free from colour consciousness. The French are 
largely free from it,!? and have protested against its introduction 
from America. An American Committee refused permission to 
an American Negress to attend the Fontainbleau School of Fine 
Arts in France, where she would have been welcomed.?® Ameri- 
can patrons have required exclusion of Negroes from Paris cafés 
against the protest of the French. No prejudice barred Toussaint 
L’Ouverture when he went to France. The colour antipathy which 
seems to us to be so fundamental does not appear so to the French 
mind. As the Temps said editorially on August 1, 1923: 


“We have nothing to do with the attitude which prevails in 
America among her citizens. That is not our business. But this 
is France, and with us the colour line is totally unknown. Our 
forefathers didn’t write the Declaration Les Droits de L’Homme 
(declaration of the rights of man) for us to forget its letter and 
its spirit. 

“ Besides, our lack of all discrimination against coloured men 
is not inspired alone by doctrine. We are sincere about it. The 
blacks, with whom we come in contact, come from the French 
colonies. Whatever their status—citizens, subjects or protégés— 
they are our compatriots, and we treat them as such. How could 
it be otherwise when so many of them fought by our side to save 
France? 

“That small number of our American visitors who forget that 
the French Republic makes no differentiation among the inhabit- 
ants of its immense Empire, whatever their race or colour of their 
skin, will, we hope, regard our black citizens as good as the rest 
of us. They will not forget that their country also accepted the 
services of black men in time of need. 


4 Tbid., p. 294 ff. 
*% Young, Travels in France. 
*% The New York Times, April 24, 1923. 


220 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“ We promise in return that when we are in the United States 
we will obey the dry law which American legislation has imposed 
on every one. And we expect our visitors to obey our rule, which 
proceeds not from law but from our character and customs, in 
virtue of which all Frenchmen form one grand family, from which 
none of them is disinherited.” 14 


Dr. Oswald Spengler complains of this attitude on the part of 
France. “France,” says he, “handles the Negro question in a 
manner virtually giving English and American institutions a blow 
in the face, for France is the sole power which today recognises 
the Negro as an equal, and which is literally breeding a Negro 
population in European soil, thereby injecting a spirit into the 
colonial Negro population which may one day prepare a frightful 
awakening for the European world.” * 

And even among us the manifestations of colour antipathy are 
peculiar. White and Negro children play together and white 
people call coloured nurses “ Mammie” all their days. “Sam 
was my Negro companion, philosopher and friend,” says Page of 
his boyhood crony. There was no colour antipathy there. Some 
white people in Alabama protested against the appointment by the 
Government of any but white officers and physicians to the new 
Veterans’ Bureau Hospital in Tuskegee, and yet all the patients 
for whom these white doctors would have to care are Negroes.’® 
_An truth colour is only a rough external sign, of great value to 
distinguish races when for any reason they need to be distin- 
guished, but external and irrelevant when the reason for dis- 
tinguishment appears—and this is true whether the colour be 
black, yellow or white. 

A southern college football team recently refused to play the 
team of a northern college because the latter had on it a Negro 
half-back,!* but this southern team would have ridden in a Pull- 
man car with a Negro porter. A South African of British blood 


14 See editorial, “ American Race Prejudice in France,” in The New York 
Times, July 3, 1923. 

% The New York Times, March 28, 1923. 

16 The New York Times, June 22, 1923. 

7 Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department, [nformation 
Service, Nov. 3, 1923, p. 6. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 221 


has described some of the anomalies of colour prejudice in a book 
of observations of American life in the South: 


“While the strongest resentment would be felt and expressed 
at a native (Negro) travelling as a passenger in a public convey- 
ance—a post cart or the like—especially with lady fellow- 
passengers, no exception is taken to his presence as a driver, and 
indeed ladies will manoeuvre to get the box seat at his left hand 
rather than take an inside place. To eat at the same table as a 
native would be the depth of indignity, but to eat food cooked by 
him, and often actually handled in the uncleanest manner by him, 
is taken as a matter of course. We shrink at personal contact, and 
would shudder to take the hand of a black man, yet to his care, or 
that of his sister, we entrust our most precious living treasures in 
their tenderest years, to be washed, clothed, tended, often ca- 
ressed. The presence of the cleanest native alive in the same rail- 
way carriage as whites is an offence which demands the immedi- 
ate attention of the Government; the dirtiest may make our beds. 
A single case of marriage between white and black by Christian 
rites will fill the newspapers with columns of indignant pro- 
test, but illicit intercourse, even permanent concubinage, will pass 
unnoticed.” 18 


There are men to whom colour is as though it were not. 
“Judging from my personal acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland,” 
said Booker Washington, “I do not believe that he is conscious 
of possessing any colour prejudice. He is too great for that. In 
my contact with people I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, 
narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good 
books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way 
to permit them to come in contact with other souls—with the great 
outside world. No man whose vision is bounded by colour can 
come into contact with what is highest and best in the world.’ ?° 
And some institutions also have steadfastly refused to take 
cognizance of colour distinctions. Of Harvard University, for 
example, the Harvard Alumni Bulletin of Jan. 25, 1923, declared, 
“For Harvard today to deny the coloured man a privilege it ac- 
cords to whites, appears inevitably as a reversal of policy if not 


8 Evans, Black and White in the Southern States, p. 20. 
Up from Slavery, p. 229. 


222 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


as positive disloyalty to a principle for which the University has 
hitherto taken an open and unshaken stand.” And when the mat- 
ter came before the Board of Overseers as to admission to the 
Freshman class and dormitories, it was voted that “ white and col- 
oured races shall not be compelled to live and eat together, nor 
shall any man be excluded by reason of his colour.” 7° 

And what is colour? The Rev. J. B. Cochran, of Hwai Yuen, 
China, reported hearing a Chinese preacher discoursing on the 
races of mankind. “ There are five great races,” said he. “ There 
are the black coloured race, and the white coloured race and the 
brown coloured race and the red coloured race, and lastly there 
are we Chinese, the skin coloured race.” Each race is skin col- 
oured to itself. All the other races are tinted. 

2. Race and climate. It seems clear that it is climate operating 
through long centuries of time which accounts for colour. For 
how much also does it account in the formation of race character? 
“Climate, Food and Soil,” says Buckle, “have originated the 
most important consequences in regard to the general organisation 
of society, and from them have followed many of the large and 
conspicuous differences between nations which are often ascribed 
to some fundamental differences in the various races into which 
mankind is divided.” ?4 Mr. Weale goes further. In his view 
climate is the supreme factor, more powerful than colour. At the 
back of Asia’s alleged hate of the white man 


“there is little question of colour, no matter what there might 
be on the European side. The white man is not hateful because 
he is white, but because he is strong, confident and overbearing. 
The Asiatic is being therefore forced to adopt his new attitude in 
self-defence ; and though, of course, colour has admittedly become 
a barrier and also a great irritant, it must be remembered that it is 
the white man who has largely taught the coloured man that this 
is so. . . . The climate of the Kast is responsible for the pe- 
culiar philosophy and social atmosphere of the East—both of 
which are totally different from the philosophy and social atmos- 
phere of the West, and neither of which can be really changed in 


” The New York Times, April 10, 1923. 
* Buckle, History of Civilisation in England, Vol. I, p. 29; See Hunting- 
ton, Civilisation and Climate. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 223 


their fundamentals, no matter what efforts are put forth. The 
changes will be in material, practical things—not in the web of 
life long ago woven to its final form. For though in certain por- 
tions of the Far East the climate approximates to that obtaining at 
the other end of the hemisphere, nevertheless subtle differences 
exist which in a few generations would be sufficient to change the 
characteristics of any white race migrating to Eastern Asia and 
which would assimilate that race to the autochthonous race around 
them. So great a role does this question of climate play that the 
attention of statesmen should be concentrated on it as a very vital 
question in practical politics. . . . Men, having too long been 
fully occupied in examining historical causation, may soon be 
tempted to study climatic influences. There is, in any case, a per- 
ceptible pause to be noted in the propagandist activities of the 
white man, probably because he instinctively realises that, though 
his inventions and his forms may be readily accepted, the spirit of 
the non-white populations of the world remains precisely the same 
as it has always been; in a word, that no matter how much exter- 
nals may be altered, men retain certain unalterable qualities and 
ideas which are rooted in climate and environment.” ** 


This is an extreme view, which Mr. Weale himself modifies 
now on one side by emphasising colour and now on another by 
_ recognising universal truths which are above climate. Finot and 
Bagehot balance the climatic environment with the hereditary 
trend, itself in part the product of long environmental influence. 
And they also recognise the moral elements involved. Bagehot 
says: 


“Climate and ‘physical’ surroundings, in the largest sense, 
have unquestionably much influence; they are one factor in the 
cause, but they are not the only factor; for we find most dissimilar 
races of men living in the same climate and affected by the same 
surroundings, and we have every reason to believe that those un- 
like races have so lived as neighbours for ages. The cause of 
types must be something outside the tribe acting on something 
within—something inherited by the tribe. . . . Old writers fan- 
cied (and it was a very natural idea) that the direct effect of 
climate, or rather of land, sea and air, and the sum total of phys- 
ical conditions varied man from man, and changed race to race. 
But experience refutes this. The English immigrant lives in the 


™ Weale, The Confict of Colour, pp. 131-133, 265. 


224 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


same climate as the Australian or Tasmanian, but he has not be- 
come like those races; nor will a thousand years, in most respects, 
make him like them.” °° 


And Finot says: 


‘Man, like all organic beings, is subject to the influence of the 
milieu, the factor which dominates all the transformations which 
take place in nature. Besides this force, acting slowly during an 
interminable number of centuries by way of modification, there is 
another which seems to modify its influence in working by way of 
preservation. ‘This second force is heredity, owing to which ac- 
quired characteristics tend to persist in the rising generations. 

Climate acts directly on man and animals. . . . The 
moral causes, such as the liberty which people enjoy, the consider- 
ation of which they are assured, the wholesome sentiment of 
equality before the law and the respect of human dignity, the in- 
struction which is given them, the national system of taxation 
which contributes to their comfort, the facility of internal and 
external communications, the way in which the State exercises its 
privileges and monopolies, justice which respects all the legitimate 
aspirations of citizens, and as many other conditions of a healthy 
development of a country, have all likewise their counter effect on 
the physiological formation of human beings.” ** 


The effects of climate on race character are as real as its effects 
on race physiology. Huntington, in Civilisation and Climate, sets 
forth the evidence for the view that the world will never be domi- 
nated from the tropics by any races. The coloured races live in 
the zones of low initiative and retarded progress. The conditions 
against which they contend would affect in some, though not the 
same, way and manner any other race subjected to them. If the 
white races move to the tropics they are sooner or later inevitably 
affected and may become inferior to other races already natural- 
ised there. But the adjustment of race to climatic environment 
does not involve a judgment of race inferiority or superiority. 
It signifies simply differentiation of race function and service. 

3. Race and nationality and language are three closely associ- 
ated but by no means identical elements. ‘They are found in a 


*° Physics and Politics, pp. 183 f., 84. 
*Finot, Race Prejudice, pp. 130, 137, 149. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 225 


great variety of inclusive and exclusive relationships. Nationality 
and race are not synonymous. Mr. Stoddard draws a very sharp 
but quite untenable distinction between them. ‘“ As a matter of 
fact,” says he, “they connote utterly different things. National- 
ity is a psychological concept or state of mind. Race is a physio- 
logical fact, which may be accurately determined by scientific 
tests such as skull measurement, hair formation, and colour of 
eyes and skin. In other words, race is what people anthropolog- 
ically really are. Nationality is what people politically think they 
are.’*5 But as a matter of fact it might, perhaps, be as truly 
maintained that nationality is physiological and race psychological. 
Nationality is associated with physical geography, political insti- 
tutions and all the material expressions of an organized corporate 
life. And race, as ethnologists acknowledge, cannot be ac- 
curately determined by physiological tests. It has been for this 
reason that all really scientific race tests have been discarded and 
the crude sign of colour adopted as the only acceptable mark of 
race distinction.?° 

The lines of nationality and race frequently overlap. Many 
races may be embraced in one nationality, as in India or in the 
United States, and there may be many nationalities in one race as 
in every one of the great races of the world. The more powerful 
of the two ideas in modern history, nationality and race, has been 
nationality. It has divided races which were homogeneous and it 
has also forced into unwilling assimilation races which were di- 
vided. It is clear that race is not the final fact so often alleged. 
If it is so solidly and indestructibly fixed in physiological char- 
acter, how is it that an institution like nationality can overpower 
and obliterate it?*" After surviving for centuries in the Balkans 
the ancient ethnographic composition of the people, in spite of its 
supposed physiological stability, was engulfed by nationalistic 
forces, and the perpetuation and confusion alike of the racial 
groups have been determined by the strength or the weakness not 
of race feeling or character but of nationalistic energy, sometimes 


> The New World of Islam, p. 158. 
6 See Finot, Race Prejudice. 
7 Reinsch, World Politics, pp. 3-5. 


226 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


measurably synonymous with race, but often blurring the racial 
lines.28 

Likewise language and race are not to be too closely bound to- 
gether. And yet there are those who hold language, and the mind 
which language expresses, to be the great racial criterion. On the 
other hand, Georges Rodenbach declares that a common language, 
and the mind behind it, transcends the bounds of nationality and 
race. “In truth,” says he, “those who are of French nationality 
often feel themselves to be more different from one another than 
from a foreigner writing in French.” °° 

It is obvious that language is not a racial mark. Language is 
certainly of greater consequence than type of hair or colour of 
skin. ‘Two men speaking the same language have far more in 
common than two men speaking different languages but of the 
same type of hair and colour of skin. Language is no proof of 
racial affinity but, on the other hand, (1) a race that did not have 
a common language would be heavily handicapped by that lack, 
(2) the unity of race character is futile against the lack of a means 
of communication, (3) people who have the same means of com- 
munication in language are united by a bond of mental kinship 
which their difference in colour or race cannot annul. Once 
again it is clear that race is not the ultimate and sovereign fact in 
human relationships.°®° , 

Languages used to be classed among the great evidences of the 
ultimateness of race distinctions. That view, like most of the 
other views which conceive the races as doomed to perpetual 
segregation and conflict, has been given up. ‘‘ No country more 
signally than our own,” says Roemer in Origin of the English 
People and of the English Language, “ presents examples of the 
fact, of which proofs abound throughout the world, that the lan- 


*° See Report of the International Committee to Inquire into the Causes 
and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, pp. 21-28; Sloane, The Balkans, a Lab- 
oratory of History, p. 292: “In particular the dogma that nationality, 
ecclesiasticism, and consanguinity [7. e., race] are the foundations of po- 
litical efficiency has been discredited.” 

*® Finot, Race Prejudice, p. 195. 

° Atlantic Monthly, March, 1920, art. by John Kulamer, “ Americanisa- 
tion, the Other Side of the Case,” p. 422. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 227 


guage spoken by a people is, by itself, no test of race at all; nor 
is the fallacy of the principle of ‘nationalities of race’ more 
clearly demonstrated than by the history of the people from whom 
our own vernacular is borrowed and whose patriotic and political 
nationality is founded on fusion rather than on purity of race; 
indeed the latter would perhaps be sought in vain throughout 
the world.” *1 


The lesson from language with regard to the race problem is 
still deeper. As the writer of the article on “ Ethnology and Eth- 
nography ” in the Encyclopedia Britannica says: 


“Perhaps the greatest psychical proof of man’s specific unity is 
his common possession of language. Theodore Waitz writes: 
‘Inasmuch as the possession of a language of regular gram- 
matical structure forms a fixed barrier between man and brute, it 
establishes at the same time a near relationship between all people 
in psychical respects. . . . In the presence of this common fea- 
ture of the human mind, all other differences lose their import.’ °° 
As Dr. J. C. Prichard urged, ‘ the same inward and mental nature 
is to be recognised in all races of men. When we compare this 
fact with the observations, fully established, as to the specific in- 
stincts and separate psychical endowments of all the distinct tribes 
of sentient beings in the Universe we are entitled to draw confi- 
dently the conclusion that all human races are of one species and 
one family.’ ” 33 


There is a fuller assertion of the same noble truth in the essay 
on “ Language as a Link,” by Professor Smith, in Western Races 
and the World. It adds all that needs to be said about race and 
language. He holds that 


“Mankind constitutes a real unity, that there is an identity of 
nature running through and present in all mankind. This is not, 
or not merely, a natural unity. It does not lie in, or arise from, 
singleness of ancestry or kinship of blood; it is not merely the 


2 Op. cit., p. 375. See also Ratzel, The History of Mankind, Vol. I, Book 
I, p. 5, “Language”; Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper by D. S. 
Paces on “ Language as a Consolidating and Separating Influence,” 
pp. 57-61. 

2 Anthropology, p. 273. 

% Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. IX, p. 850, 


228 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


result of historic accident or physical causes. I cannot think of it 
as less than a spiritual unity which can neither be produced nor 
destroyed from without. All men can say ‘ We’ with a truth and 
significance incommunicable to other beings than men: they share 
in a complex but single type of experience. And with this goes 
a mutual or reciprocal communion in which no other beings par- 
ticipate; they are all literally one with one another—they form 
one ‘community.’ They do actually and in fact communicate 
with one another, actually understand, and co-operate with one 
another. The whole human world is, despite all appearances to 
the contrary, in act and fact, not merely in potency or promise, an 
intercommunicating and interacting and co-operating whole. And, 
if we take the word ‘language’ widely enough, we may with truth 
say that the whole human race commands and employs a single 
language by means of which it maintains this world-wide inter- 
communication, and that of this language all forms of extant 
human speech are but varieties differing in degree of perfection, 
while the brutes have no corresponding language shared either 
with one another or with us. Were this not so the spiritual unity 
of mankind would be non-existent, or what is the same, ineffectual 
and inoperative. This radical identity underlying all diversity of 
human speech is difficult to grasp, but it is there at the basis— 
difficult to grasp because, as I have said, it is a spiritual not a 
natural or physical unity.” 4 


4. Race and communications. We do not need to go further 
than England and the United States for illustration of the effect 
of isolation and communication upon racial and community char- 
acter. The mountain people of our southern States are as pure a 
branch of the old Anglo-Saxon stock as can be found in America. 
But geographical isolation has wrought in them racial character- 
istics which may have physiological marks in colour of hair or 
eyes or cranial or cephalic index, but have certainly had a distinct 
effect in mental qualities. The early Colonies, and to almost as 
great an extent the present States ate marked by clear sectional 
characteristics, due to inheritance and physical environment in part 
but also to the nature of their communications. In England and 
Scotland there are innumerable pockets of humanity where isola- 
tion, often within sight of a city, has left its deep results. Greek 


PO Puicsh wip.) OU. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 229 


historians have always found the explanation of much of the 
character and history of Greece in the physical configuration of 
the peninsula. The idea of a racial germ plasm, fixing unalterably 
the character and destiny of those who inherit it, is treated with 
small respect by geography, and by the influences which flow from 
communications.. Undoubtedly the isolation of peoples, under the 
diverse conditions of their life, is what accounts for the racial 
diversity of humanity. Even the believer in racial germ plasm 
has to recognise this or give up the conception of the common 
origin of humanity which both science and revelation proclaim. 
Somewhere far back his germ plasms were all one. What differ- 
entiated them? How can he know that the forces and conditions 
which did that cannot undo it, or, if there may be a better ideal, as 
we believe there is, than undoing this long work of time, how does 
he know that new conditions and forces may not achieve that bet- 
ter ideal, and that adequate communications between men may not 
fulfill in the whole of humanity what the lack of communications 
will have prepared men to accept, with an understanding and 
capacity acquired by their education in isolation. 

The late Professor Reinsch worked out these ideas in a 
paper on “Influence of Geographic, Economic and _ Political 
Conditions ”’: 


“Nationalism first grew in Greece and Italy, protected by 
mountains and by the sea, and in the modern world it was Fn- 
gland, whose insular position enabled her first to develop a self- 
conscious and independent national life. In Africa the absence of 
such boundaries has contributed to hinder the development of 
civilisation. The tribes are not settled long enough, nor are their 
boundaries sufficiently fixed for them to develop those qualities 
which are based upon stability of location. . . . The growth of 
world unity which we have witnessed in our day has already modi- 
fied, and even superseded to some extent, the effect of geographic 
separation, of political nationalism or particularism, and of eco- 
nomic exclusiveness. Economic and social forces are beginning to 
flow in a broad natural stream, less and less hampered by dynastic 
and partisan intrigue, by protectionist walls, by monopolies and all 
sorts of exclusive privileges. . . . We may here ask whether 
this development does not introduce a danger or resuscitate an old 


230 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


peril under a new form? We have seen that humanity needed 
local protection against the indiscriminate onslaughts of the mass. 
Now that natural boundaries have ceased to be determining fac- 
tors on account of the supremacy of the human mind over physical 
conditions, is it not to be feared that humanity will be reduced to 
an indiscriminate mass lacking distinction—in a word, that it will 
be vulgarised and barbarised? We are still in need of cores or 
nuclei about which human self-consciousness may gather. It is 
here that the usefulness of nationalism, with its ideals, lies. 
When the physical conditions which gave it birth have lost in 
relative importance, humanity is, nevertheless, still in need of that 
distinguishing national self-consciousness under which its ideals 
and achievements will be further protected and developed. As 
mere localism the national idea has lost force. As a means by 
which values fixed and gained in the struggle of history may be 
preserved for the future it still has a meaning and importance. 

The civilised nation today will recognise that its aim is 
humanity, and that the mission of its policy transcends by far the 
limits of geographical boundary, but we cannot as yet dispense 
with these nuclei of human force and ideals which history has de- 
veloped. They are the great personalities which make up the system 
of civilised states. When their work is fully done, they will pass 
away, but for a time still it will be their mission to organise the 
efforts of humanity to higher ends and to protect mankind against 


engulfment in an indiscriminate mass, with a lowering of all 
ideals,”’ 35 


These are thoughts to which we shall return. 

5. Race and social ideals. The social relationship which is most 
closely related to race and which throws most light upon it is sex. 
Race, as has been said, is just expanded family, and family rests 
on sex. The conception of woman’s position is one of the central 
elements in race social inheritance and education. ‘The higher the 
conception of woman, the higher the race. The higher the race, 
the higher its conception of woman.*® ) 

The facts of sex suggest some significant lessons with regard to 
the race problem. (1) It is undeniable, as Goldenweiser says, that 


*® Universal Races Congress, 1911, pp. 51, 50, 53, 55. 

% Ratzel, The History of Mankind, Vol. I, Book I, par. 12; Parsons, The 
Family. An Ethnographical and Historical Outline; Goldenweiser, Early 
Civilisation, Chapters XII, XIII; Report of the Balkan Commission, p. 271. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 231 


sex division has given rise to a set of formal and functional di- 
visions in society. Sometimes these have implied or involved 
disabilities on the part of women, but often they have not done so. 
They have represented simply specialisation of service. In primi- , 
tive societies and in modern communities also the decision has 
sometimes rested on the idea of woman’s inferiority and some- 
times of her superiority. As society has advanced the inferiority 
conceptions have been progressively discarded. One of the longest 
social struggles has been the effort of woman to achieve an equal 
status with man. This struggle for sex equality is analogous to 
the struggle for race equality. If it has involved the loss of any 
values, it has meant the gain of others. It has not destroyed any 
real facts of difference. It has simply erased artificial and unreal 
discriminations which hampered and impoverished society. We 
have thus a division, deeper and more permanent than race, and 
really physiological, which recognises functional differentiation 
without antipathy or discrimination. If this can be for sex, why 
not for race? 

(2) Race antipathies have always melted before sex. Between 
all races there has been either intermarriage or intercourse with- 
out marriage. We shall consider the whole question of inter- 
marriage presently. Here it will suffice to state that the alleged 
sense of race superiority or finality vanishes before the fact of 
sex. The moral values of life do not so vanish. They take on 
new solidity and inviolability. Not so with race. It is such a 
feeble principle that it is one of the first to crumble on the line 
where the sexes meet. 

(3) The struggle for the emancipation and equality of women 
has been and is still related to the struggle against war. “It may 
be noted,” says Goldenweiser, “that the basic politico-economic 
disfranchisement of woman goes back in the main, to a more 
primary fact, namely the monopolisation by man of the weapons 
and acts of war. ‘Thus the tragedy of woman symbolises, in the 
last instance, the enslavement of the powers of peace by the 
powers of war.’ °”’ The same thing is true of the tragedy of race 


7 Early Civilisation, p. 264. 


232 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


prejudice and conflict. It rests on the philosophy of force. Mr. 
Weale dismisses the Liberian experiment with the words: 


“Tt was attempted in an age when philanthropy thought that 
vague abstract principles could be applied to racial questions ir- 
respective of the particular nature of those problems. It at- 
tempted to do by kindness (which is only a fleeting emotion) that 
which can only be performed by brute movements, grounded in 
human nature—that is, by the use of force called into action by an 
imperative demand, such as the necessity to find elbow-room, to 
find food. ‘To bear aside those who would stay such natural 
movements by mere arguments is a very natural corollary. 

“ Following this line of thought, it is somehow not impossible 
to believe that one day the West Indies may be invaded by great 
swarms of black men, unless they are stopped by force. It is also 
quite conceivable that a general intercourse such as today exists 
between England and Canada, and England and Australia, may 
one day exist between the blacks of America and the blacks of 
Africa. There will be societies and unions and churches and other 
bonds—all tending to accentuate the solidarity of the Negro race— 
all tending to range the race in a rival camp. Undoubtedly, in 
these future days, fresh efforts will have to be made to hold the 
Negro in check and to confine him in such a manner that he will 
not be able to drag down the white races. Humanity has hitherto 
only concerned itself with such debatable themes as the ill- 
treatment of blacks by whites. The day may not be far distant 
when men will pause, and openly wonder whether in the past they 
have been well advised to interfere at all with solutions which, 
though barbarous, are only so because men, when they are face to 
face with elementary facts, can only use elementary methods.” °° 


So long as this philosophy of the supremacy of the jungle-forces 
“ in human life prevails, the race and sex problems are both impos- 
sible of solution. The races which deem themselves superior will 
Oppose race justice exactly as men opposed sex justice. The 
achievement of justice and equality must go hand in hand with 
the triumph of the powers of peace and reason over the powers of 
unreason and war. As reason and peace come to prevail sex and 
race come to their rational adjustment and function in humanity. 


* The Conflict of Colour, p. 241 f. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 233 


6. Race and religion. What is the relation of religion to race 
and the race problem? 

Is religion determined by race or is it a force which may be 
counted upon to mould and determine race? “ Looking at things 
upon a large scale,” says Buckle, “the religion of mankind is the 
effect of their improvement, not the cause of it.”%® And Pro- 
fessor EF. A. Ross holds that in religion the racial inheritance and 
the racial education are decisive, not vice versa: ‘“ Every man 
denies that his faith is restricted or thrust upon him by circum- 
stances. On the contrary, he imagines that it is a matter of intel- 
ligent free choice. But this is all illusion. The recognised as- 
cendency of remote historical factors in determining the religious 
preferences of peoples emphasises how non-rational and unfree 
are the religious adhesions of men.” 4° 

Is religion a divisive force, provocative of war, or is it consoli- 
dating and unifying? ‘“ Differences of language and custom— 
and, above all, of religion—serve to intensify the hostility (of 
race),” says Fouillée. 


“All religion is sociological in character, and expresses symbol- 
ically the conditions native to the life or progress of a given so- 
ciety. The religion of a race converts it into a huge society 
animated by the same beliefs and the same aspirations. Moreover, 
all religion is intolerant, and hostile to other religions. It believes 
itself to be the truth, and thus seeks to universalise that which 1s 
only the particular spirit of one race or one nation—e. g., the Jew- 
ish spirit, the Christian spirit, the Mohammedan spirit. When, 
then, the ethnic consciousness becomes at the same time a religious 
consciousness, the assertion of the individuality of a race implies 
a counter-assertion to the individuality of other races. It is hid- 
den warfare, passing over at the very first opportunity into open 
wartfare.”+ 


Fouillée is speaking of the decisive influence of ethnic religion, 
but he believes in no universal religion which would unite all men 


® History of Civilisation in England, Vol. I, p. 185. 

® Soctal Psychology, p. 8. 

“ Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper on “ Race from the Sociological 
Standpoint,” p. 25. 


234 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


as an ethnic religion helps to unite the race which believes it. His 
faith is in scientific and philosophical ideas. 


“Just as ethnic and religious ideas are dividing factors, so 
scientific ideas are conciliatory in tendency. . . . Over and 
above the consciousness of race, nationality, or religion, scientific 
ideas develop a human and social, not to say human and cosmic 
consciousness. Science, then, is the great reconciler, the fruitful 
germ of universal peace, realising in the world of intelligence the 
maxim ‘ Allin one.’ By the force that belongs to ideas union tends 
to pass from the intellect into the heart. Men of science, be their 
colour white or yellow, hail one another as brothers.” * 


6c 


Railroads, telegraph, every industrial invention “shining equally 
upon white and black,” commerce, common philosophical ideas 
bind men together when “all religions, guilty of the two great 
capital crimes—pride and hatred, divide.’’ Not so with the scien- 
tific man and the philosopher. “ His opponents seem to him at 
bottom his best friends. He has no inclination whatsoever to kill 
or burn them.” To be sure, these words were spoken in 1911. 
How admirably they have been authenticated! Witness Belgium 
and the Ruhr. “ For the sociologist,” adds M. Fouillée, “ there is 
but one practical means of bringing races together, and that is to 
diffuse scientific, moral and social instruction as widely as pos- 
sible. Instruction of this kind, spread gradually among the differ- 
ent nations, is the one great means of ensuring peace.” * 

The Commission which investigated the race riots in Chicago 
which occurred in July, 1919, asked in a questionnaire which it 
sent out, for opinions as to the value of religion as a solvent of 
racial difficulties and differences. It received such answers as 
these: “ Utterly valueless, the average individual does not think ” ; 
“Religion has failed to solve the racial difficulties in America 
because its principles have never been practiced by the people. 
Religion has remained a beautiful theory ”’; “It has no utility. It 
had no utility in the World War”; “ Unforttnately religion has 
little sanction over the social conduct where interest and passions 
are involved.” #4 


TORU ey an DLC Delo 
“ The Presbyterian Magazine, May, 1923. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 235 


Are all religions alike in this matter of their influence, or is. 
there any special claim that may be made for any one of them as 
truly adapted to promoting world unity? ‘Two answers are given 
apart from what we would regard as the Christian answers. One 
is that all religions are alike, that it is only a “ pretext that one 
religion is more moral or more civilising than another,” and “ that 
any racial customs repugnant to the sentiment of humanity should 
be indirectly mollified by ethical processes and not by religion.” * 
The second answer is that religion has a consolidating function, 
but that it will be religion not crystalliged or formulated into a 
creed or racialised, but religion conceived as a universal human 
instinct. “ As an instinct, deep-rooted in the heart, religion tran- 
scends the barriers of race, in offering the bond of a common as- 
piration between individuals. And as the day of dogmas wears on 
to its long twilight, and the true inwardness of religion becomes 
acknowledged, we may come to invert the relation between re- 
ligion, as pretext, and other motives, calling themselves by its 
Hage cys” 

But these questions may all be given a different answer. In 
primitive society we know that religion and life covered the same 
sphere. The fellowship of religion and of kin are the same fellow- 
ship.47 The Old Testament shows us a human race emerging 
from a tribal condition and growing into an organised theocratic 
state. The race was consolidated and given character by its re- 
ligion. In our view it was not so much the Hebrews who pro- 
duced their religion. It was rather their religion which produced 
the Hebrews. And throughout the Kast whatever may have been 
the origin of their religion, “the force which united people in 
obedience to their governments,” and provided the chief influence 
of racial and national cohesion “has been mainly religious. This 
is true of races as distant and different from the Semitic people as 


*® Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper by Professor Giuseppe Sergi, on 
“Differences in Customs and Morals and their Resistance to Rapid 
Change,” p. 72. 

“Tbid., paper by Rhys Davids on “Religion as a Consolidating and 
Separating Influence,” p. 66. 


*" Smith, The Religion of the Semites, pp. 30, 47, 50. 


236 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the Chinese and the Japanese.” #2 And Sir Alfred Lyall sums up 
his conclusions in his Asiatic Studies with a recognition of the 
unifying racial influence of religion: 


“Tt is impossible not to admit that in many instances the suc- 
cessful propagation of a superior or stronger creed has been fa- 
vourable to political amalgamation, nor can there be any doubt of 
the intense fusing power that belongs to a common religion. In 
our day the decree of divorce between religion and politics has 
been made absolute by the judgment of every statesman, above all 
for Christian rulers in non-Christian countries; nevertheless the 
religion of the Spaniards was a part of their policy in the New 
World, and this of course is still true in regard to Mohammedans 
everywhere. There have been many periods, and there are still 
many countries, in which an army composed of different religious 
sects could hardly hold together. And it is certain that for ages 
identity of religious belief has been, and still is in many parts of 
the world, one of the strongest guarantees of combined action on 
the battle-field. It has often shown itself far more effective, as a 
bond of union, than territorial patriotism ; it has even surmounted 
tribal or racial antipathies; and its advantages as a palliative of 
foreign ascendency have been indisputable. The attitude of re- 
ligious neutrality is now manifestly and incontestably incumbent 
on all civilised rulerships over an alien people; it is a principle 
that is just, right and politic; but there is nothing in its influence 
that makes for that kind of assimilation which broadens the base 
of dominion. Religion and intermarriage are the bonds that 
amalgamate or isolate social groups all the world over, especially 
in Asia, and their influence for or against political consolidation 
has lost very little of its efficiency anywhere.” * 


There can be no doubt of the consolidating influence of the 
great race religions each within its own race and, omitting Chris- 
tianity for the moment, in the case of Buddhism at least there can 
be no doubt of the influence of religion in overspreading the 
bounds of race and if not unifying races, nevertheless, in a real 
sense, mollifying the sharpness of race divisions. 

Among the primitive people with their spirit-worship and their 
spirit-fear, their fetiches and their taboos, religion is both an in- 


“Curtis, The Commonwealth of Nations, pp. 5, 19. 
“Lyall, Asiatic Studies, Second Series, p. 384. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE - 237 


ternal bond of the race and a bond between races as truly as it has 
been the occasion of racial strife.°° Back of all the developed 
religious conceptions and the ethical philosophy of the Chinese, 
De Groot finds a “ Universalistic Animism ”: “ The primeval form 
of the religion of the Chinese and its very core to this day is 
animism. . . . In China it is based on an implicit belief in the 
animation of the universe and of every being or thing which exists 
in it.”°' Such a conception is comprehensive of many differences. 
It is its influence, in fact, which has unified the Chinese world- 
view and race-sense. As animism works out practically, however, 
it is too inchoate and motley, too full of fear, to serve as an endur- 
ing race cement or to bind together conflicting race interests. 

Hinduism has never aspired, save under influences generated by 
its contact with the West, to be anything but an ethnic religion. 
Its principle of comprehension even of contradictory principles 
and ideas, is a principle of toleration but not of organisation or 
unity. Its unifying power in India had indeed been great, but 
only because it has identified itself with caste which is the re- 
ligious consecration of racial and social distinction accepted as the 
unalterable human order. And it has not recognised its unsocial 
and inhuman inadequacy as revealed in its exclusion, from both 
society and religion, of the outcastes, comprising one-fourth of 
the Hindu population of India, until it was brought into compari- 
son with Christianity and with its democratic idea and its principle 
of the unity of the human race. 

Buddhism is the one non-Christian religion which most nearly 
proclaims the universal principle. The great emperor Asoka, who 
united nearly the whole of India under his sceptre in the third 
Century B. c., sought to consolidate all the races under his rule by 
the extension and organisation of Buddhism, and it was as a 
result of his activity that Buddhism spread into China. But the 
dominant passivist ideas of Buddhism have made it ineffective 
even as a race cement and still more as an inter-racial bond. Hin- 
duism annulled it in India. It was no more effective in preventing 


Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives; Nassau, Fetichism in West 
Africa. 
5 De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese, p. 3. 


238 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


war between the two greatest Buddhist nations of China and 
Japan than the Christianity of Germany and France was effective 
in preventing the World War. “Surviving as a fossil even in 
Buddhism,” says Rhys Davids, “the very gospel of mutual toler- 
ation and amity, where the term ‘ Ariya’ has come to mean, not 
race-complacency but ethical excellence, hate of the alien as alien 
and not only as infidel, appears too obviously in religious wars to 
need exemplifying.” °* And today one may see the King of Siam 
ineffectually striving to use Buddhism once again as the inspira- 
tion of national personality. But the power of the faith in unify- 
ing either one race or two is gone. 

Mohammedanism set out like Buddhism and Christianity, to 
embrace all races, but in two respects it differed from them. It 
did not propose to rely upon moral force alone and its strong 
policy of inward consolidation was accompanied by a fiercer pol- 
icy of outward exclusion. No apology can destroy the evidence 
of violence in the extension of Islam.°* But this very violence 
worked as a force of racial unification among the people who ac- 
cepted it. ‘It is one of the most striking proofs of the strength 
of the creed of Islam,” says Bishop Lefroy, “that it does thus 
force into the background—at any rate, to a considerable degree— 
the distinguishing racial characteristics of the peoples to which it 
has come, and supersede them by a mind, a character, a life which 
is primarily and unmistakably the outcome of the creed itself.” °* 
And Mirza Saeed Khan says, “To do justice to Islam and its 
founder, theoretically Islam knows no race distinction. As soon 
as one is converted to it, he is in the brotherhood, no matter what 
his complexion or race.” 

It is to be gladly recognised that there are passages in the Koran 
which support the principle of inter-racial accord. At the Uni- 
versal Races Congress Hadji Mirza Yahya, of Teheran, defended 
Persian Islam, at least, against the charge of intolerance: 


“The religion of the Persians makes monotheism essentially 
* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 64. 
8 Haines, Jslam as a Missionary Religion, chs. III, 1V, VI; Rice, Crusad- 
ers of the Twentieth Century, pp. 425-431. 
* Mankind and the Church, p. 281. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 239 


cosmopolitan, and calls for universal peace among its disciples to 
whatever nationality they may belong: ‘O followers of the Scrip- 
tures, come hearken to this one saying: that all may be equal be- 
tween us and you. Let us agree together to worship only the one 
God and put naught else on a level with Him.’ *° 

“It declares the equality of all men, calling to mind that they 
are all children of the same father and the same mother and that 
only virtue can give to one man preference over his fellow: ‘O 
men, we have created you of one man and one woman; we have 
distributed you in tribes and families to the end that you may 
know one another. The worthiest before God is that man from 
among you who is most virtuous.’ °° 

“And lastly, it stands for religious freedom: ‘ Let there be no 
constraint in religion.’°* In such principles as these there is, then, 
nothing which could deter men from entering into international 
relationships.” °§ 


And he cited the Persian poets to show how truly they felt the 
wide sympathy of humanity: 


Sadi. “The sons of Adam are members of one body; they are 
made of one and the same nature; when Fortune brings distress 
upon one member, the peace of all the others is destroyed. O 
thou, who art careless of thy fellow’s grief, it fits not thou 
shouldst bear the name of man.” 

Sanai. “ What matter whether the language be Arabic or 
Syriac, if so be it express the truth? What matter whether the 
place be east or west, if only God be worshipped there? ”’ 

Hafiz. “ Thy beauty united with thy gentleness hath conquered 
the world. Of a truth, it is by union that the world can be 
conquered.” 

Orfi. “ So behave towards thy fellow-men, O Orfi, that after 
thy death the Mussulman may bathe thee with the holy water of 
Kaaba and the Hindu burn thee in his sacred fire.” 

Achegh. “ Thou hast read the Koran, Achegh, and thou know- 
est the verse, ‘Eynema tawallou.’®® When, then, the gates of 
Kaaba are closed, go worship the Eternal in the Church.” 


= Koran, Sura 3, verse 57. 

° Koran, Sura 49, verse 13. 

Koran, Sura 2, verse 257. 

* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 148. 

° “The East and the West belong to God: whithersoever your glance be 
turned, you will meet His face.”—-Koran, Sura 2, verse 109, 


240 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


The speaker at the Universal Races Congress from Egypt, 
Mohammed Sourour Bey, also had a word to say of the racial 
tolerance of Islam: ‘‘ From the legal point of view the marriage of 
a Mussulman with a Christian or Jewish woman is permitted, 
which shows the great toleration of the Mussulman religion. The 
Mussulman woman marries only a Mussulman; if she unites her- 
self to a non-Mussulman, the marriage is declared radically null 
and void. The children of both sexes that are born of these mar- 
riages follow the religion of their father.” °° This conception of 
tolerance is more characteristic of Mohammedanism than the 
ignored words of the Koran quoted by Hadji Mirza Yahya or the 
verses of the Persian Sufi poets. Indeed the teachings of the Per- 
sian philosophers and of religious leaders, like the Bab and Baha 
Ullah and their successors, have in nothing more widely departed 
from historic Islam than in their theory of human unity. For 
Mohammedanism itself is not and cannot be a solvent of the race 
problem.®! | 


° Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 170. 

** As you well know for Islam and Mohammed there were and are even 
today only two spheres, ‘the abode of Islam’ and ‘the abode of warfare.’ 
‘Fight against them,’ 7. e., idolaters, Jews and Christians,’ says the Koran, 
Sura 2, ‘till strife be at an end and the religion be all of it God’s.’ This 
command is a real religious duty for Islam through all ages. And Bahaism 
which springs out of the bosom of Islam does not improve things, for the 
Bab ordered the Kings of the Bayan to allow no one in their country who 
does not embrace his religion, Christians as merchants excepted, and to 
take by force their wives and children and property. Do not be deceived 
by Baha and his son Abdul Baha’s borrowed ideals and lofty phraseology.” 
(Letter Mirza Saeed Khan, Teheran, July 9, 1923.) For evidence of the 
racial feelings triumphing over the religious -feelings of Moslems, see 
Browne, A Literary History of Persia, pp. 232, 242, 264. Browne cites the 
tendency of pious Moslems of the early period, as expressed in many tra- 
ditions, to disregard racial prejudices in the domain of religion, but he 
adds, “ That the full-blooded Arabs, in whom racial feeling greatly out- 
weighed the religious sense, were very far from sharing the views embodied 
in these and similar traditions is abundantly shown by Goldziher, who cites 
many facts and passages which indicate their contempt for the foreign 
Mawali,’ (1. e., “clients” or non-Arab Moslems) (Op. cit., pp. 264, 229.) 
The contrary view, that Islam is a complete race solvent and that it fur- 
nished a true brotherhood, is, I know, the orthodox and traditional view. 
(Asia, Feb., 1922, art. by Arnold J. Toynbee, “Islam and the Western 
World.”) Nevertheless the position taken in the text is maintained, with 
full knowledge of what is to be said on the other side. If others have seen 
Islam producing a true brotherhood, well and good. The more true broth- 
erhood in the world the better. “ There is no need for us to minimise the 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 241 


It has no conception of the Fatherhood of God! How can it 
have of the brotherhood of man? ‘ Outside of the mosque,” Sir 
Narayan Chandavarkar told me once in Bombay, “there is no 
brotherhood in Islam.” ‘That was a sweeping statement. But in 
a deep sense it is true, as life in Persia or Turkey or India proves. 
Islam has no conception of corporate racial unity, much less of 
corporate human unity.®* Bad as the failure of other peoples and 
other religions to deal with race problems may have been, the 
worst failure in the modern world has been in the case of Turkey 
and Islam and the Armenians. Christianity could stand to be 
judged against Islam by the difference between the Armenian 
problem in Turkey and the Negro problem in the United States. 


greatness of Islam’s brotherhood. It has had important social and political 
consequences in the past, and particularly in view of the message of Pan- 
Islamism may have even greater consequences in the future. Islam’s broth- 
erhood is great and is effective; let us confess it at the outset, and let us 
confess also that in some respects it may even go further as a matter of 
practice than our own Christian brotherhood often does. But having said 
so much we must not forget to recognise that there is a fundamental and 
far-reaching difference between Islam’s conception of brotherhood and 
ours. . . . Islam’s brotherhood, in a word, implies brotherliness :only 
toward those within the brotherhood, and its attitude to all without the 
brotherhood is ever that of hostility, even if veiled hostility. . . . Within 
the brotherhood, we find when we come to examine the matter closely that 
there is again a fundamental defect. The fact is that Islam’s brotherhood 
has not yet advanced to the position of having such ethical value that 
Moslems can trust one another. In Cairo, for instance, it is a notorious 
fact that Moslems are tremendously shy of entering into business partner- 
ships with one another for this very reason, and the same fact has been 
apparent all through Moslem history. This has been the reason why 
Christians have been so largely employed in the bureaux of Moslem gov- 
ernments. As Margoliouth points out, ‘public business had somehow to 
be transacted, and few Moslems were qualified to transact it, while little 
confidence was reposed in those who were qualified’” (International Re- 
view of Missions, April, 1924, pp. 185-187. See Margoliouth, Early Devel- 
opment of Mohammedanism, p. 122.) For an able and persuasive state- 
ment of the Mohammedan position and a strong argument for the supe- 
riority of Islam in its teaching and influence with regard to race, see 
Ameer Ali, Syed, The Spirit of Islam, new edition, Part II, Chap. IV, “ The 
Church Militant of Islam.” But for a frank acknowledgment of Islam’s 
failures see sermon by Eshuf Edih Bey, preached in St. Sophia, printed in 
the Sirat-i-Mustakeem and translated in The Hibbert Journal, April, 1910, 
pp. 647-651. And Mr. Trowbridge deals convincingly with the claim that 
Islam is innocent of the charge of religious war in The Moslem World, 
July, 1913, art. “ Mohammed’s View of Religious War.” See also Free- 
man, History and Conquests of the Saracens, p. 202 f. 
° Mankind and the Church, pp. 290-298. 


242 RACK AND RACE RELATIONS 


And yet it is of the futility of Christianity as a force toward the 
solution of the race problem that some students of the race prob- 
lem are assured. Not all. Mr. Stoddard approves of missionary 
effort: “In as far as he is Christianised, the Negro savage in- 
stincts will be restrained and he will be disposed to acquiesce in 
white tutelage.” ®* Christianity is a desirable soporific for race 
assertion. But Mr. Weale thinks religion a negligible factor in 
race development: “ It is, of course, due neither to religion nor to 
polygamy that Europe and Asia are different—since these are 
rather results than first causes. Climate, soil, and environment 
are the great first causes of the difference—climate alone being a 
sufficiently powerful factor, as those who have resided in hot 
climates know, to produce in a few generations the most remark- 
able changes.” ** And Rene Gerard likewise sees religion as only 
an effect and not a cause. Is this because in men’s own lives 
religion is only a secondary and ineffectual thing? 


“To believe that philosophic and religious doctrines create 

morals and civilisation,” says Gerard, “is a seductive error, but a 
fatal one. To transplant the beliefs and the institutions of a 
people to new regions in the hope of transplanting thither their 
virtues and their civilisation as well is the vainest of follies. 
The greater or less degree of vigour in a people depends on the 
power of its vital instinct, of its greater or less faculty for adapt- 
ing itself to and dominating the conditions of the moment. When 
the vital instinct of a people is healthy, it readily suggests to the 
people the religious and moral doctrines which assure its survival. 
It is not, therefore, because a people possess a definite belief that 
it is healthy and vigourous, but rather because the people is 
healthy and vigourous that it adopts or invents the belief which 
is useful to itself. In this way, it is not because it ceases to believe 
that it falls into decay, it is because it is in decay that it abandons 
the fertile dream of its ancestors without replacing this by a new 
dream, equally fortifying and creative of energy.” © 


This view is not reconcilable with history. ‘The great religions 


*% The Rising Tide of Colour, pp. 96 f. 

“The Conflict of Colour, p. 31. 

* The Hibbert Journal, Jan., 1912, Art. by Rene Gerard, “ Civilisation 
in Danger.” 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 243 


were not the product of great races at the apex of their vital in- 
stinct. Everyone of them had a humble beginning. The great 
moral ideas were not generated by civilisations in their power. 
And on the other hand a race, with no alteration whatever in its 
heredity or vigour, has been again and again shaken or shattered 
or remade by “ philosophic and religious doctrines.” Mr. Weale 
does not get far with his view of the negligibility of religion before 
he abandons it: “ In addition to the question of colour,” he says, 
“it must never be forgotten that there is also the vital question 
of religion.” °§ So “ instinct ” is not the only thing that is “ vital.” 
Two pages further on Mr. Weale becomes unconverted again: 
“ Religion has little to do with the standard of living; religion has 
still less to do with the balance of power; and it is these things 
alone which have today paramount racial importance.” ®* But 
presently the light breaks afresh. Colour and climate are not the 
fundamental things. There is truth which is under all and over 
all, independent of geography, “common to all humanity, de- 
termining history and life.” ® 

We believe that Christianity is this truth and we come now to 
consider the relation of the Christian religion to the race problem. 

Christianity found in the Roman Empire a dream of political 
world unity, a noble effort to realise that dream and the realisa- 
tion that the effort had failed and that some other principle of 
unity must be found. The extent to which Rome had unified the 
world was one of the most notable elements in the preparation of 
the world for the expansion of the Christian religion. Among 
those external unifying conditions Harnack mentions (1) the 
Hellenising of the East and in part also of the West, which had 
gone on steadily since Alexander the Great, or the comparative 
unity of language and ideas which this Hellenising had produced, 
(2) the world-empire of Rome and the political unity which it 
secured for the nations bordering on the Mediterranean, (3) the 
exceptional facilities, growth and security of international traffic, 
the admirable roads, the blending of different nationalities, the 


° The Conflict of Colour, p. 117. 
* Thid., p. 119. 
* Tbid., p. 189 f. 


24:4 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


personal intercourse, (4) the practical and theoretical conviction 
of the essential unity of mankind and of human rights and duties, 
(5) the decomposition of the ancient society into a democracy, the 
gradual equalising of the “ Cives Romani” and the provincials, 
of the Greeks and the barbarians, the elevation of the slave class, 
(6) the religious policy of Rome which furthered the interchange 
of religions by its toleration so long as they did not affront the 
ceremonial of the State religion, (7) the existence of organised 
associations, (8) the irruption of the Syrian and Persian religions, 
(9) the decline of the exact sciences and the rising vogue of a 
philosophy of religions, with a craving for some form of 
revelation.© 

Some of those conditions were elements of strength and some 
were elements of weakness in the Roman world. The elements of 
weakness were prevailing. ‘“ Ancient life had begun to break up; 
its solid foundations had begun to weaken. . . . Nationalities 
_had been effaced. The idea of universal humanity had disengaged 
- itself from that of nationality. The stoics had passed the word 
that all men were equal, and had spoken of brotherhood as well 
as of the duties of man toward man.” 7° All these outward con- 
ditions, Harnack tells us, “brought about a great revolution in 
the whole of human existence under the Empire, a revolution 
which must have been highly conducive to the spread of the 
Christian religion. The narrow world had become a wide world; 
the rent world had become a unity; the barbarian world had 
become Greek and Roman.” ™ 

But though the ground had been made ready for the sowing the 
old world lacked the living seed. Notions were in men’s minds 
which prepared the way for Christianity, but they wanted the defi- 
niteness and the energy needed to make them effective. Every- 
thing, indeed, as Uhlhorn says, 


“was nothing more than preparation. The old world was not 


® Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, 
Vol. I, pp. 19-24. 

 Tbid., p. 23 f., quoted from Uhlhorn. 

* Tbid,\ p. 20. 





ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 245 


able to produce from itself a Christian universalism. The result 
of that great process of comminution which was wrought out in 
the vast Roman Empire was only uniformity, not true unity. 
True unity presupposes diversity. It is a comprehension of the 
manifold under a higher principle of organisation. Here we en- 
counter a limitation which was insuperable to the old world. It 
lacked the thought of Humanity, and since it knew not the whole, 
it could not rightly appreciate the parts. The unity of mankind, 
and the organisation of the entire race in nations,—the great truths 
which Paul preached in Athens, the centre of ancient wisdom— 
were hidden from it. Therefore the meaning of nationality was 
not rightly understood. At first it was exaggerated. There was 
only national life, and nothing more. Afterwards it was under- 
valued. In the Roman Empire the various nationalities failed to 
obtain their just rights. They were completely lost in the great 
whole. The result was, not a living universalism but only a 
shadowy one, an abstract cosmopolitanism which did not know 
how to appreciate the meaning of nationality as a compact 
organism, 

“The ultimate reason lies deeper. There was no religious 
unity. That which today holds cultivated nations in unity, not- 
withstanding all their diversity, is their common Christianity. 
Were this taken away their development in culture would grad- 
ually diverge, and the nations would again, as in ancient times, 
confront each other as enemies—unless, indeed, power were given 
to one of them to force them all into one empire. This, in many 
quarters today, will not be conceded. Appeal is made to the 
multiplied means of communication which now exist, and the con- 
sequent approximation of nations. Stress is laid on their common 
culture, conceived of wholly apart from religion,—as if outward 
union could of itself create community of life! as if the kernel 
of this entire common culture were not their Christianity! The 
thought of a humanity whose members are nations, is only pos- 
sible where there is faith in one God and one Redeemer. As long 
as Polytheism rules, as long also as religion is purely national, 
humanity is split up into a multitude of nationalities rigidly se- 
cluded from each other. Even the Universalism of the Roman 
Empire was possible only because, in its religious development, a 
monotheistic tendency had already begun even within the limits of 
paganism,—a tendency to be sure which could not advance beyond 
a shadowy Monotheism. The abstract pantheistic Deity which 
was the result of this tendency corresponds exactly to the abstract, 
and pantheistically coloured, cosmopolitanism which took the place 


246 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


of the earlier and vigourous consciousness of distinct nationality. 
When, instead of a dead deity, was preached the living God, 
Maker of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
then for the first time humanity was able to advance from this 
abstract cosmopolitanism into the true Universalism which rules 
the Christian era.” 


From the very beginning Christianity came into the world with 
the stamp of universality.“° The race to which Jesus belonged 
had developed “an intense sentiment of nationality.” This dis- 
played itself in many ways in the lifetime of Jesus. One argu- 
ment advanced for suppressing Jesus was that if He were let 
alone “the Romans will come and take away our. place and 
nation.” “* It was better accordingly, it was urged, to have Jesus 
sacrificed ‘that the whole nation perish not.” On the pleas- 
anter side, the elders who interceded in behalf of the centurion at 
Capernaum, did so on the ground that He “loveth our nation.” * 
Jesus was recognised as a member of their nation, sharer in its 
glories and high spirit. 

But Jesus was not sharer in its narrowness and exclusivism. 
One of His earliest sermons gave great offense because He laid 
emphasis on the outreaching grace of God. Elijah, He pointed 
out, had been sent to none of the widows of Israel in the days of 
famine, but to a Sidonian woman, and Elisha had cleansed no 
lepers of Israel, but only Naaman, the Syrian. ‘“ And they were 
all filled with wrath as they heard these things.” ”” The same 
spirit of nationalistic narrowness, from which Jesus was free, 
found expression in the sneer of the Jews at Jesus’ declaration, 
“Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me; and where I am, ye 
cannot come. The Jews therefore said among themselves, 
Whither will this man go that we shall not find Him? Will 
He go unto the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the 
Greeks?” “8 As though in contrast with this smallness of vision, 
John proceeds to relate the words of Jesus on the last, the great 


™Uhilhorn, The Conflict of Christiamty ia Heathenism, p. 27 f. 
® Luke I, 78 : TT 42 DGS am OU ONL 4c: 

® John XI: 50. the Luke VIL: 5. 

™Tuke IV: 25-29, ™John VII: 34, 35. 





ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 247 


day of the Feast of Tabernacles, beginning, “If any man thirst, 
let him come unto Me and drink.” ® 

This contrast between the attitude of Jesus and the attitude of 
the Jews is sharply presented in their relations to the Samaritans. 
The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans,8° and when they 
would be especially bitter and contemptuous in their reference to 
Jesus they said to Him, “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a 
devil.” ®1 The later tradition declared, “It is forbidden to eat 
bread or to drink wine with the Samaritans.” But Jesus ignored 
and violated these restraints. ‘“‘ He went and entered into a vil- 
lage of the Samaritans.” °? He sent His disciples into a Samari- 
tan village to buy food and welcomed the people of the village to 
faith and discipleship.8* And He deliberately gave to a Samaritan 
a place in one of His most exquisite parables above Levite and 
priest.54 

It was significant that the first people to recognise the universal 
mission of Jesus were Samaritans. “ We know that this is indeed 
the Saviour of the world,” they said.8* Yet in some sense, this 
sweep of the work of Jesus had been already perceived. The 
song of the angels suggested it.836 Aged Simeon foresaw it. 
““ Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,” he said, as the child Jesus 
lay in his arms, : 

“Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, 
A light for revelation to the Gentiles.” §* 

And John the Baptist hinted at it also: “ The Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world.” 8& Thenceforward it was re- 
vealed with increasing clearness that Jesus was in the world for 
the world. He said, Himself, that the field was the world.®? His 
disciples were the light of the world,®® as He had come a light 
into the world,®! and was Himself the world’s light.9? He called 
Himself the bread of God which had come down for the life of 
the world.®? 


® John VII: 37. * Luke X: 33. a Natty LLL: 38, 


fed Olin: LV. 2.9; ® John IV: 42. vc Mates Vie 14. | 
% John VIII: 48. Pe Vaokevl ou. 10:14; * John XII: 30. 
cll Bil Cats Dua Sibenke Ls 3 P32: John VIL: 12. 


* John IV: 39-42, c onnil s 29, myohineV Ie '331/ 30, 


248 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Indeed, throughout, Jesus would admit no narrower field of 
work and salvation for Himself than the world. There are ap- 
parently contradictory statements. “I am not sent but unto the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel.” °* “Go not into any way of 
the Gentiles and enter not into any city of the Samaritans.” ® 
Jesus had to make a beginning. His immediate mission was to 
Israel. The only way in which any larger mission could be made 
possible was by the discharge of this mission to the Jews. A sal- 
vation for all was to be wrought out in time and space and until 
the work was done the field was confined. But beyond all the 
immediate and preparatory work lay the universal reaches of a 
redemption for all mankind. Jesus was such a good Israelite in 
order that the mission of Israel might be fulfilled and there be 
henceforth neither Jew nor Greek. Accordingly the whole spirit 
and message of Jesus were universal. “ God sent not His son into 
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him 
might be saved.” °® He contemplated the conviction of the 
world,®’ and the preaching of His gospel among all nations.®® 
And even before His coming, He said, the Father had intended 
the temple to be a place of prayer for all nations,®® while now all 
local limits were set aside and everywhere true worshippers were 
invited to come immediately to the Father without temple and 
without priest.1° 

Jesus told of a good Father over all,1°! of a light in Himself 
adequate for all guidance,’°? of Himself as the only way to the 
Father,!° and as the truth and the life.1°* In view of all this the 
nation in which He was could be the starting point only, not the 
goal. His gospel was a message for all men everywhere. 

The Book of Acts in the New Testament is a drama of the un- 
folding universality of Christianity. The Ttbingen school of 


DP AVEC EN V ee ee OHNUL Wi si20ne4. 
Mul atts) Duro: 1 Matt. V: 45-48. 
moLOuM Ls) 16/117: om John VIIL 42, 
Rohn SR Wils Ss Kb 21 23, A John XLV 6, 
" Matt. X11: 14; XXIVI 213, oe poh URL Vis Ge 
* Matt, X1:17. 


Acts: devi Le Sb) 139 30 Te Ze sale. 24 icy Lh) Ola) id Loe a 
TO S28 GE WA ORT SUL O02 U7 heey 





ee 


) 
: 
) 
| 





ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 249 


critics rewrote the history in terms of a feud between Paul and 
Peter, as representing the two attitudes to the race problem with 
which we are confronted today, the attitude of human equality 
and the attitude of Nordic race aristocracy. There was no such 
feud, but there was a real struggle in Paul’s own mind and in 
Peter’s 1° as to the right solution of the race issue and the real 
necessity of a living acceptance of the new and revolutionary 
doctrines of ‘‘ the brethren who are of the races”? 1°’ and of the 
organic unity of mankind. To see how vivid the teaching of 
Christianity was, open the New Testament and read it again, sub- 
stituting the word “races” for “ Gentiles.” 18 And read anew 
its references to Greeks and barbarians.1°? And note the great 
utterances of Paul in Gal. III: 28; Col. III: 11, and Eph. II: 22. 


“There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond 
nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man 
in Christ Jesus.” 11° 

“ Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and un- 
circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, Piatt: ; but Christ 
ss allrand/dn all.” 14+ 

“Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Genders in the flesh, 
who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circum- 
cision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time sepa- 
rate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and 
strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and 
without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once 
were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For He is our 
peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of par- 
tition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in 
himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might 
reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, 
having slain the enmity thereby: and He came and preached peace 
to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for 


PA ctsr A. ACS DOV: 23, 

et aeNlatt.| awAlisek hu Mari ik 422 Acts: shee Does Able Res LS 
over e/ UNA VILL eaeRomi bho si Lil: 295% bs 2a tt. LOS epi 
Piecow ess) 112 1o770 1 im, Les 73) 1 Peter [is 12: 

eOnTM All 20; Acts XUVid XV 3 43° XTX TO pea 2T Roms 143 
neoesgeeGors L: 24. 

Sate hh 25. COL EL yd 


250 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. 
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ 
Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several 
building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the 
Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of 
God in the Spirit.” 11? 


Of all the foolish words spoken today none are more foolish 
than those spoken in depreciation of Paul. The idea that he nar- 
rowed the gospel and shadowed its freedom and joy is as wide of 
the truth as any idea men ever conceived. It was the truth of 
God which was given to him to speak which saved the Roman 
Empire from dissolution for a thousand years and which is yet to 
save and unify mankind. A fine passage of Sir William Ramsay’s 
describes the first of these two services: 


“In the mind of the ancients no union of men, small or great, 
good or bad, humble or honourable, was conceivable without a 
religious bond to hold it together. The Roman Empire, if it was 
to become an organic unity, must derive its vitality and its hold on 
men’s minds from some religious bond. Patriotism, to the an- 
cients, was adherence to a common religion, just as the family tie 
was, not common blood, but communion in the family religion 
(for the adopted son was as real a member as the son by nature). 
Accordingly, when Augustus essayed the great task of consoli- 
dating the loosely aggregated parts of the vast Empire, he had to 
find a religion to consecrate the unity by a common idea and 
sentiment. The existing religions were all national, while the Em- 
pire (as we saw) was striving to extirpate the national divisions 
and create a supra-national unity. A new religion was needed. 
Partly with conscious intention, partly borne unconsciously on the 
tide of events, the young Empire created the Imperial religion, the 
worship of an idea—the cult of the Majesty of Rome, as repre- 
sented by the incarnate deity present on earth in the person of the 
reigning Emperor, and by the dead gods, his deified predecessors 
on the throne. Except for the slavish adulation of the living 
Emperor, the idea was not devoid of nobility; but it was incapable 
of life, for it degraded human nature, and was founded on a lie. 


? Eph, 1: 11-22: 





ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 251 


But Paul gave the Empire a more serviceable idea. He made pos- 
sible that unity at which the imperial policy was aiming. The true 
path of the Empire lay in allowing free play to the idea which 
Paul offered, and strengthening itself through this unifying reli- 
gion. That principle of perfect religious freedom (which we re- 
gard as Seneca’s) directed for a time the imperial policy, and 
caused the acquittal of Paul on his first trial in Rome. But free- 
dom was soon exchanged for the policy of fire and sword. The 
imperial gods would not give place to a more real religion, and 
fought for two and a half centuries to maintain their sham wor- 
ship against it. When at last, the idea of Paul was, even re- 
luctantly and imperfectly, accepted by the Emperors, no longer 
claiming to be gods, it gave new life to the rapidly perishing or- 
ganisation of the Empire and conquered the triumphant barbarian 
enemy. Had it not been for Paul—if one may guess at what 
might have been— no man would now remember the Roman and 
Greek civilisation. Barbarism proved too powerful .for the 
Greeco-Roman civilisation unaided by the new religious bond; and 
every channel through which that civilisation was preserved, or 
interest in it maintained, either is now or has been in some essen- 
tial part of its course Christian after the Pauline form.” 143 


And an equally fine word of Gotthard Lechler’s describes the still 
_ larger meaning of Paul’s influence: 


“Paul has inestimable importance, both for the Church of 
Christ and for humanity in general. Not only was he the first to 
bring out the unity of the human race inherent in the person of 
the God-man into clear perception, but also to establish it practi- 
cally and in fact. In pre-Christian times, divided and disunited 
humanity longed after the union and interpenetration of the differ- 
ent races and nationalities. But nothing good came of it.14* Con- 
quering Rome was just then occupied with uniting all the known 
world into its empire. But all its conquests and its wonderful gift 
of ruling produced only a formless mass of peoples, a gigantic 
body without a uniting spirit, naturally so, because itself had not 
this spirit, but was of the old man which is fleshly, being of the 
earth and itself earthy. When the second man came,—the Lord 
from heaven, who is Spirit,—it became possible to bring mankind 
into actual unity, beginning from within, by virtue of the one life- 


"8 Ramsay, Pauline and Other Studies, p. 99. 
a) Comp. Bunsen, Hippolytus, i, pp. 131, 257; Schaff, Kirchengesch, i, 
471, etc. 


252 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


giving Spirit,4> under the one head, which is Christ. The instru- 
ment of God who was called to establish this unity in thought and 
deed was Paul. Asa true Israelite without falsehood, and, at the 
same time, by the grace of Christ as the apostle of the Gentiles, 
with deep spiritual doctrinal development, but, at the same time, 
with that stupendous missionary activity which he had from the 
grace of God, with his marvellous spiritual gift of rule and origi- 
nal power of organising, he united Jews and Hellenes in one 
Church, in one family, under one Head and Lord, in one faith and 
in brotherly love, and brought together the different Churches of 
the East and West into one body, so as to become one Church of 
Christ. The walls of partition thrown down by the divine-human 
personality and propitiatory death of Jesus, were completely de- 
stroyed by the Apostle Paul. Though he did not, it is true, com- 
plete and carry through the work of uniting the human race, yet 
there is still a hope at this day of reaching that goal, and we in 
faith expect it; but Paul put the first hand to the united structure, 
building on the foundation which was laid, viz., Jesus Christ; 
which is his world-historical, immortal work.” 11° 


Now it is to be recognised at once that Christianity has not as 
yet thus unified the races. This is something held against it as a 
reproach and disproof, especially its failure to prevent war. But 
Christianity is not automatic or self applying. It can only solve 
men’s problems when men will accept its solution. To the extent 
that men have accepted it, it has worked. 

It has elevated and transformed and unified races. In the case 
of primitive races it has preserved them from destruction and 
given them some support against the disintegrating influences of 
a different social and economic civilisation. This has been denied 
by teachers like Alexander Agassiz.1‘’ But the testimony is suf- 
ficient.148 Two Scotch testimonies from Africa of men who knew 
as much of the matter as Agassiz knew of corals, will suffice. One 
is from James Stewart: 


MAE Cor, XV 45) 47. 

4° Lechler, Apostolic and Post Apostolic Times, Vol. I, p. 150. 

™ Letters and Recollections of Alexander Agassiz, p. 369. Per contra 
see The Missionary Review of the World, May, 1923, art. “ Conflicting 
Forces in Papua,” by C. W. Abel. 

48 See Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, pp. 108, 114, 117; Den- 
nis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, Vol. IIl, pp. 278 ff. 





ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 253 


“ Will a civilisation based on this Utilitarian or Trade and Com- 
merce theory really do the work—the work of elevation—its sup- 
porters say it can do? That may reasonably be doubted. Trade 
and commerce have been on the West Coast of Africa for more 
than three centuries. What have they made of that region? Some 
of its tribes are more hopeless, more sunken morally and socially, 
and rapidly becoming more commercially valueless, than any tribes 
that may be found throughout the whole of the continent. Mere 
commercial influence by its example or its teaching during all that 
time has had little effect on the cruelty and reckless shedding of 
blood and the human sacrifices of the besotted paganism which still 
exists near that coast. 

“Tt may be said that it is not the direct aim or duty of these 
commercial influences to civilise or improve morally. There is 
every reason for believing that they neither can nor wish to do 
such work, in spite of all belief to the contrary. If a wholesome 
and beneficial civilisation is to be introduced, that can only be done 
by the introduction and direct teaching of Christianity, and that is 
best done by Christian missions; and as the scale of the continent 
is large, so also would require to be the scale of missionary work. 

“The fond belief of many, that the best way to Christianise is 
to civilise first, consequently falls to the ground. Still this is a 
delusion which many continue to cherish. It is a curious fact that 
purely philanthropic or civilising efforts, even on the West Coast 
of Africa, apart from the spirit of Christian missions have not 
succeeded. The strongest statement has yet to be made, and it rests 
on a conclusion gathered from observation and experiment. It 
cannot be said that civilisation sprang out of Christianity ; nor yet 
that civilisations have not existed apart from Christianity ; both 
statements would be untrue. But, speaking of races that have 
fallen to a certain low level, all modern experience seems to show 
that they are never truly civilised by the direct processes, hasty 
methods, or incidental influences of a civilisation which settles 
down among them chiefly for its own ends or private gain. 

“This denial of the power of a purely Utilitarian Civilisation to 
civilise effectively, beneficially, and permanently, may be rejected 
by some as resting only on African missionary evidence; and mis- 
sionary opinion, as some think, is often lacking in breadth and 
calmness. It requires to be used, however, as it is sometimes all 
we can get. Similar evidence comes from other parts of the world 
from missionaries who have spent their lives in close contact with 
these backward races, and it should have some value. From New 
Guinea there comes the same conclusion as from any part of the 


254 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


African continent. James Chalmers, one of those simple great 
souls who do their duty and scorn the consequence, even if that 
should be the loss of life itself, says: ‘I have had twenty-one 
years’ experience among natives. I have lived with the Christian 
native, and I have lived, and dined, and slept with cannibals. But 
I have never yet met with a single man or woman, or with a single 
people, that civilisation without Christianity has civilised.’ ” 11° 


The other is from Robert Laws, testifying of Nyasaland: 


} 

“Tt was a vast region where cruelty, suffering, and bloodshed 
prevailed unchecked. ‘The people were riven into thousands of 
independent units warring continuously against each other. Every 
circle of huts was the scene of endless disputes, witchcraft-trials, 
beer-drinks and moonlight revelries. It was a country where the 
thoughts and desires of the heart were evil continually. No 
woman would venture on the bush-paths alone. She would have 
been a victim of the first man who met her and would probably 
have been left stabbed to death. Terror made it a sleepless land. 
‘We want sleep,’ was the cry of the people to Dr. Livingstone.” 

“Everywhere now there is sleep profound. Peace lies upon 
the Lake and the wide-spreading bushland and the villages. Men 
still carry spears, but it is to ward off the wild beasts. The faces 
of the women are free from the old sullenness and suspicion. In 
the deep heart of the forest far from the symbols of ordered law 
they travel alone in absolute security. Industry is unrestricted 


and workers have more property than their chiefs in former 
days. 700 


It is a fact which history amply illustrates in India among the 
low caste people and in Africa among the primitive and savage 
peoples, that Christianity lifts races. The witnesses are unim- 
peachable both for competence and for veracity. Of Christianity 
and the low castes in India the Government Census reports wit- 
ness to “the brilliant achievements of the Christian missions in 
this noble work of civilising and elevating the aborigines in Chota 
Nagpur,” “the moral regeneration of the race (the Mundas),” 
the uplifting by Christianity of the outcaste.24 As to the 


4 Dawn in the Dark Continent, pp. 24-26. 
a Life of Robert Laws, quoted in Sunday School Times, Dec. 10, 1922, 


p. 784. 
141 Census of India, 1911, Vol. I, pp. 136-139. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 255 


African, the testimony of the Inspector of Schools in Natal will 
suffice : 


“The history of native education in South Africa is the history 
of South African missions, for it is due entirely to the efforts of 
the missionaries that the Natives of South Africa have received 
any education at all, and to this day all but three of the several 
thousand Native schools are conducted by missionary agen- 
cies.” 122. “Tt is said that a certain wise old Native chief divided 
Europeans into two classes, viz., white men and missionaries. 
The distinction is significant. To the thoughtful Native the white 
man is the disintegrating force which has broken down his tribal 
customs and sanctions, and has replaced them with nothing but 
innumerable and vexatious governmental restrictions introduced 
for the benefit of the white man. On the other hand, he knows 
the missionary to be his friend. It is the missionary who educates 
his children, who writes his letters, who cares for him in sickness 
and sorrow, who acts as a buffer between him and the local store- 
keeper or Government official, and whose motives are always 
eiriistic. 


Mr. Loram does not exempt missionaries from error in breaking 
down good or innocent moral and social customs, but he lays that 
to human misjudgment and not to Christianity, and he quotes 
Lord Selborne’s statement that the missionaries in South Africa 
“should be regarded as the people who have saved the situation, 
because they are the people who have taken far the most trouble, 
and who alone have sacrificed themselves in order to ensure that 
the education of the Native, inevitable from the moment that he 
came into contact with the white man, should contain some- 
thing good.” 1*4 

Not only is it a fact that Christianity elevates and unihes low 
races. It is also a fact that it does it by moral ideas and spiritual 
force. The climate does not change. The physiology of the race 
continues the same. It is obvious that climate and physiology are 
not the determining factors, but that race elevation and unifica- 


™ Loram, The Education of the South African Native, p. 46. 

eo Ltd.) D.i7 3. 

4 Thid., p. 78. See Ratzel, The History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 65; Watts, 
Dawn in Swaziland. 


256 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


tion are moral processes. The competent students of African life 
recognise this.’*° It is the “ moral forces which are chief powers 
in the progress or recuperation of any race.” 7° And this view 
may be generalised. The development of races and of race rela- 
tionships is a moral development. It is only secondarily a phys- 
ical problem. Kidd asserts that we must discard colour and 
heredity as the basis of race judgment: “ Neither in respect alone 
of colour, nor of descent, nor even of the possession of high intel- 
lectual capacity, can science give us any warrant for speaking of 
one race as superior to another. ‘The evolution which man is 
undergoing is, over and above everything else, a social evolution. 
There is, therefore, but one absolute test of superiority. It is 
only the race possessing in the highest degree the qualities con- 
tributing to social efficiency that can be recognised as having any 
claim to superiority.” 727 And he proceeds to press this view as 
furnishing the true judgment of our own race. It is not a matter 
of white skin or long heads or Nordic heredity. It is a matter of 
humanity, of strength and uprightness of character and of devo- 
tion to the call of duty, and he quotes Lecky on The Political 
Value of History: 


“Its foundation is laid in pure domestic life, in commercial in- 
tegrity, in a high standard of moral worth and of public spirit, in 
simple habits, in courage, uprightness, and a certain soundness 
and moderation of judgment which springs quite as much from 
character as from intellect. If you would form a wise judgment 
of the future of a nation, observe carefully whether these quali- 
ties are increasing or decaying. Observe especially what qualities 
count for most in public life. Is character becoming of greater or 
less importance? Are the men who obtain the highest posts in the 
nation, men of whom in private life, and irrespective of party, 
competent judges speak with genuine respect? Are they of sin- 
cere convictions, consistent lives, indisputable integrity? . . . It 
is by observing this moral current that you can best cast the horo- 
scope of a nation.” 1°8 


% The Scuth African Native, pp. 3, 229. 

2% Stewart, Dawn in the Dark Continent, pp. 14, 33. 
% The Control of the Tropics, p. 98. 

8 Tbid., p. 100 f. 


ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF RACE 257 


And what is thus spoken of nations is equally true of races. 
The Christian ideals and forces are the only salvation of races 
and the only solution of the race problem.'”® 

The Christian view has a right to assert itself. If it is the duty 
of patriotic men to know and spread the biological facts about 
society,'*° it is still more clearly their duty to know and spread the 
Christian facts. For Christianity is the judge and standard of all 
our race judgments and contacts. It is its business, as Lord 
Meston says, to bring home to us whatever fundamental errors 
there are in our treatment of national relationships, to point out 
where in our contact with other races “ we have deflected our own 
standards and our own best traditions, founded on Christian 
Precepts.” 754 

But can Christianity bind together alien races? It may unite a 
race. Can it unite the races? We must proceed to inquire. But 
meanwhile let it be quite clear to us that this is what it came to 
do,?*? and that, if failure comes, the responsibility for it belongs 
not to Christianity but to men, and that man must not fail, and 
with God’s help need not fail. As a wise race teacher has said: 
“Out of all the many confusing interpretations of Christ’s teach- 
ings, this is clear to me: That He meant to bring together the 
alienated, to harmonise the discordant, to heal the ancient wounds 
caused by the mere struggle for self, and that into the world’s 
disorder He intended to bring a new order, which He called: The 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

“The most valuable possession which Christianity holds for 
me is this conviction: That the task is unfinished, that the conflict 


1% Mankind and the Church, pp. 240, 245 f. With regard to Christian 
missions as a conciliating and uniting force see Hunter, The India of the 
Queen, p. 219; Seeley, The Expansion of England, p. 323. 

1° Vale Review, April, 1917, art. by Conklin, “ Biology and National 
Welfare, p. 486: “The time has come when one cannot be a good citizen 
without some knowledge of biology.” 

11 The East and the West, Jan., 1923, art. by Lord Meston, “India at the 
Crossways,” p. 73. 

183 For me the mention of Christ’s name, ‘poured out as ointment,’ 
touches such a chord of love and response, that, no matter what the race 
or colour, I am drawn to that Soul more firmly than to any dearest and 
nearest relation in the flesh who is a stranger to Him.” Letter from Mirza 
Saeed Khan, M.D., Teheran, Persia, July 9, 1923. 


258 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


is still on and that it is my business to invest my life in such a 
way as to make true the dream of the Son of Man.” 188 


188 Steiner, Against the Current, p. 204. 


VI 
AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 


N preparation for this book I wrote to several friends in Asia, 
members of different races, asking them for their help. The 
letter from one of these, Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, of 

Bombay, deserves to be printed in full. It must have been one of 
the last documents he prepared. It is dated April 18, 1923, and he 
died on May 14, 1923. Sir Narayan was one of the most remark- 
able and most honoured men in India. His full title and official 
record ran: The Honourable Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, Kt., 
B.A., LL.B., LU.D., Late Judge of the High Court, Bombay, 
Ex-Vice Chancellor of the University of Bombay, President of 
the Bombay Legislative Council. 

He was a member of the Prarthana Samaj, the most progres- 
sive of the Indian reform societies within Hinduism, and a great 
devotee of the poet Tukaram. But he had strong intellectual and 
spiritual sympathies with Christianity. In one confession he 
declared : 


“Tam a Hindu, but I believe in Christ as the highest fulfilment 
of Hinduism. I have a picture of Christ crucified in my bedroom 


Pesan 


where I can look daily upon it. . . . I believe Jesus Christ to be | 
unique in His character, His teaching, His power to save and help : 


men and especially in His dynamic and world-wide social pro- © 


gramme. No one else ever did for suffering oppressed humanity — 


what He did. I ama Christian already, yet I cannot dogmatically 
say that Christ was God. Though a follower of Christ in my 
daily life I do not take the outward step of baptism because, as at 


present interpreted in the popular mind, it means not only to ac- | 
cept Christianity but to reject and denounce Hinduism. This I’ 


cannot do, for I believe that God has been in our past history 
and revelation.” 


And some years ago, in an address entitled, “The Kingdom of 
Christ and the Spirit of the Age,” he said: 


259 


260 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“Tet me tell you what I consider the greatest miracle of the 
present day. It is this: that to this great country, with its 300 
millions of people, there should come from a little island, unknown 
by name even to our forefathers, many thousand miles distant 
from our shores, and with a population of but fifty or sixty mil- 
lions, a message so full of spirit and life as the Gospel of Christ. 
This, surely, is a miracle if ever there was one. And this message 
has not only come, but it is finding a response in our hearts. The 
process of the conversion of India to Christ may not be going on 
as rapidly as you hope, or in exactly the same manner as you hope 
but, nevertheless, India is being converted ; the ideas that lie at the 
heart of the Gospel are slowly but surely permeating every part of 
Hindu society, and modifying every phase of Hindu thoughts.” 


His statement on the race question, which comprises the rest 
of this chapter, will show how these questions appeared to such a 
mind in India. 


I. What is the Origin and what do you conceive to be the divine 
purpose of race and racial differences? 

The object of these questions being, as stated in the Question- 
naire, “to set before our own people the Christian view of race 
and racial feeling, and the solution of the race problem,” I should 
content myself with starting in these answers with the Biblical 
view as to the origin of race and racial differences. In Chapter 
XI. of Genesis, in the Old Testament, we are told that at the be- 
ginning of its creation the whole earth was of one language and of 
one speech. I understand that to mean that but one race of people 
existed at the beginning of the creation. The science of Com- 
parative Philology supports that statement of fact. The account 
in Genesis goes on to say that it came to pass, as the single race 
that then existed journeyed from the east, they dwelt in the land 
of Shinar; that they started building a city and a tower; and that 
the Lord “confounded their language and scattered them abroad 
from thence upon the face of all the earth,” to prevent their being 
“one people,” and having “all one language.” In Chapter XII of 
Genesis we have it that God asked Abram to get out of his coun- 
try and from his kindred, and from his father’s house unto a land 
which God would show him with the object of making him the 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE _ 261 


father of “a great nation.” These historical facts, put very 
pithily in the Bible, show that the family first and the tribe after- 
wards gave origin to race; and that racial differences have been 
due to differences of climate, language, religion, traditions, and 
other circumstances that compose a people’s environment. While 
these main facts of the story in the Bible find support from the 
discoveries of science and the researches of history, the view 
propounded in Chapter XI of Genesis that God, having become 
jealous of the men who started building the city and the tower, 
confounded their language and scattered them abroad, to restrain 
their ambition and prevent them from becoming all-powerful 
against the Almighty, represents the crude primitive view as to 
the origin of race. The later conception of God is Love promot- 
ing Unity, not Jealousy and Fear. The Bible must be studied as 
a book dealing with the evolution of Man and the human race— 
their growth from crude ideas to the highest conceptions of hu- 
manity as revealed by the life and teachings of Christ. To the 
primitive view expressed in Genesis God appeared to deal with 
men on the principle subsequently enunciated by the Romans for 
the government of their Empire—the principle, viz., of “ divide 
and rule.” ‘That principle has been corrupted to mean that the 
safety of a ruler lies in breeding differences among the ruled that 
they may not prove powerful against the ruling authority by rea- 
son of union among themselves. But the true meaning of “ divide 
and rule” as the divine law of life is given to us in Genesis itself 
and also in some other books of the Old Testament when the 
writers of those books merely state facts as distinguished from 
their understanding of the implications of those facts. For in- 
stance, the first true glimpse of the divine law of “divide and 
rule”’ is afforded in Chapter IV, Genesis, in the second verse of 
which we are told that the two sons of Adam and Eve were not 
alike, because “ Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller 
of the ground.” “ Orders and degrees,” says Milton in the Para- 
dise Lost, “ jar not with liberty but well consist.” A wise ruler 
promotes the cause of good government and contributes to Unity 
among his people by dividing the government into gradations and 
ranks such as we know now by the name of departments, division 


262 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


of labour, delegated authority, or decentralisation. Nature is our 
best teacher on this point as to the divine purpose of race and 
racial differences. It is out of variety and diversity that Nature 
exhibits her harmony and beauty. The poet Browning brings that 
out in these lines: 


“ Rather learn and love 
Each facet-flash of the revolving year :— 
Red, green, and blue, that whirl into white, 
The variance, the eventual unity, 
Which makes the miracle.” 


Or take these lines from Wordsworth’s Prelude: 


“The immeasurable height 
Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, 
The stationary blasts of waterfalls, 
And in the narrow rent at every turn 
Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and forlorn, 
The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky, 
And rocks that muttered close upon our ears, 
Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside 
As if a voice were in them, the sick sight 
And giddy prospect of the raving stream, 
The unfettered cloud and region of the Heavens, 
Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light 
Were all like workings of one mind, the features 
Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree, 
Characters of the great Apocalypse,— 
The types and symbols of Eternity, 
Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.” 


In short, unity must come and can only come out of diversity. 
What doubt is to faith, as an incentive, diversity is to unity. All 
the different races have each its peculiarity of contribution to the 
happiness and progress of all the world. All depend upon one 
another. In St. Paul’s phrase, all are intended to be members of 
one another. No race is nor can be self-sufficient without stunt- 
ing itself. Even as between and among the people of one race, 
sameness of all without diversity in points of view, capacity, and 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 263 


personality, is apt to lead to imbecility and retard the cause of 
truth. “ Assemblies that are met,’ wrote Burke, “and with a 
resolution to be all of a mind, are assemblies that can have no 
opinion at all of their own. ‘The first proposal of any measure 
must be their master.” The same law applies to races. Each has 
its own mission allotted to it by Providence to promote the unity 
of the world—the brotherhood of the whole human race under the 
fatherhood of God. 

It has been remarked by some writers that two essential prob- 
lems enter into the problem of Life, viz., (1) the food problem, 
and (2) the race problem. The former is indispensable for the 
self-preservation of a race and the latter for its self-realisation. 

Let me briefly consider the true aspect of each of these prob- 
lems, on which depends primarily the very existence and continu- 
ance of a race. 

In its primitive conditions a people belonging to a country have, 
comparatively speaking, but a few wants, whether in point of 
food or other necessities of life. But as they advance in civilisa- 
tion, the wants increase with their standard of life, so that every 
country comes to be more or less dependent on others. Hence the 
growing value of commerce. Commerce, which in its accepted 
sense means the exchange of goods between one country and an- 
other, represents the spiritual value of what St. Paul has termed 
Charsty, meaning the brotherliness of love. This interdependence 
of races or nations for food gives rise to the terms familiar to 
Political Economy—such as production, distribution, exchange, 
value, currency, etc. These terms mean that St. Paul’s pithy say- 
ing that “none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to him- 
self” applies to races and nations as well. Mr. Harry F. Ward, 
in his book on “The New Social Order,” has well pointed out 
that during the last war “it became glaringly apparent that no na- 
tion was sufficient unto itself for its economic life.” In 1915, 
Mr. Lloyd George, who was then the British Prime Minister, 
said in a public speech that the commandment “‘ Love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself’ is not only good religion, but also good business.” 
The idea of Free-Trade first came into the thoughts of the late 
Mr. Gladstone when he was at the Board of Trade. He saw there 


264 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


a letter from a Chinese Official at Canton to the head official at 
Pekin, suggesting that “no ships should be allowed at Chinese 
ports without heavy dues, but that ships bringing food for the 
people—that was quite another affair.”* That puts the Divine 
purpose of different races in a nutshell, so far as their interde- 
pendence in respect of the food problem is concerned. 

Writing as a Hindu, I may here supplement what I have said 
by an appeal to the voice of the Hindu religion in its highest as- 
pects. The Hindu Scriptures declare that “food is the form of 
Brahma,” ¢. e., the Universal Soul. That is to say, it is a sym- 
bol of the Divine—because it is “the life of the whole world.” 
It is a current proverb in India: “ Meat and Matrimony are 
Unifiers.” 

Turning now to the question of the self-realisation of a race as 
an. indispensable condition of Life, we must first settle what self- 
realisation means in the case of a race. In the case of an indi- 
vidual, we know that there are two selves—the animal self and 
the spiritual self. Self-realisation in the case of an individual 
means growing from the lower animal to the higher spiritual 
plane of life, man rising (to use the familiar lines of Tennyson) 
“on the stepping stones of his dead self.” This he can do only 
by trying to realise in his own person the Jdeal of the Absolute, 
the life of the Universal Soul. What is true of Self-realisation in 
the case of an individual man is also true in the case of his race. 
Every race has its own peculiar genius, by means of which it is 
ordained to express and realise itself to fulfill its allotted mission, 
to make its contribution to the good of humanity as a whole, and 
thereby to help the cause of the unity of the world and civilisa- 
tion. What St. Paul has explained in Chapter XII of I Corin- 
thians holds good of races as well as individual persons. “ There 
are diversities of gifts but the same spirit; and there are differ- 
ences of administrations but the same Lord. And there are di- 
versities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all 
inall. . . . All these worketh that one and the self-same spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as he will.” “ There is no differ- 


* Page 193, Sir Algernon West’s Diaries. 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE — 265 


ence between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all 
is rich unto all that call upon Him.” That this law applies to races 
also has been so tersely expressed in an article which appeared in 
the International Journal of Ethics? that I shall take the liberty 
of citing it here:—After stating that national genius is expressed 
only “by aiming at the absolute ideal,’ that self-consciousness 
both in a nation and an individual is a hindrance to self-expression 
and “ self-realisation,’ the writer observes, “ when a nation has 
produced great original work, it has not been by trying to be char- 
acteristically national, but by seeking to find the absolute truth. 
It is by keeping steadily in view the ideal and in obedience to the 
universal claims of truth and love that nationality will reach its 
highest expression.” 

To each race, then, its peculiar genius is given in order that all 
races may serve one another and out of diversities of gifts consti- 
tuting the brighter side of racial differences help and promote 
mutual good. As beautifully sung by the Scotch divine, Dr. 
George Matheson, in his hymn, “ One in Christ ”’: 


“Thine is the mystic light that India craves; 
Thine is the Parsi’s sin-destroying beam; 
Thine is the Buddha’s rest from tossing waves; 
Thine is the Empire of vast China’s dream; 

Gather us in. 

Thine is the Roman’s strength without his pride; 
Thine is the Greek’s glad world without its graves; 
Thine is Judea’s law, with Love beside— 
The Truth that centres and the Grace that saves. 


Within Thy Mansion we have all and more. 
Gather us in.” 


II. What is your definition of race? Are the different races fun- 
damentally unlike or are their variations superficial and re- 
movable? If so, to what extent, and through what processes 
or forces? 


? May, 1921. 


266 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


I do not feel equal to the task of defining the term race. That 
is a task for experts. 

I should venture to think that the different races are funda- 
mentally alike if by fundamentally we mean at the core. ‘The 
proverbial sayings that “human nature is the same everywhere,” 
and that “ one touch of nature makes the whole world kin,” record 
centuries of world-wide experience. Years ago an English Di- 
vine—Rev. Mr. Fielding—wrote and published a book on The 
Soul of a People, which then attracted much attention. The 
author there described the character of the people of Burmah and 
displayed an insight into it which was the result of his personal 
contact with and life for a number of years amongst them in their 
own country. The purport of the book was that it is one Soul, 
one human heart with the Divine as its indwelling Spirit, which 
animates all the different races of mankind; that such racial dif- 
ferences as divide peoples and lead to mutual hatred are, however 
strongly marked, more or less superficial and can be removed by 
mutual sympathy between race and race. Since then, I believe, 
“the soul of a people ” has become not only a classic phrase, but 
a familiar expression in literature representing the truth embodied 
in the English proverbs above cited. Similar proverbs have been 
from ancient times current in India. It should be easy to prove 
by facts from history that racial differences are superficial and 
that fundamentally—meaning, at the bottom,—deep down in the 
recesses of the human heart—all races are alike. The celebrated 
Darwin, to whom we owe the doctrine of Evolution, has told us 
that certain Fuegians, who were brought to England in his time, 
were found by him on close examination to be at the bottom not 
unlike Englishmen or any other civilised race. The Africans who 
loved the great Livingstone, and served him faithfully, ready to 
die for him; the Samoans whom Louis Stevenson gathered about 
him and who became his ardent followers on account of his lov- 
ing service to them, so much so that they built a road in his hon- 
our and called it “ The Road of the Loving Heart,” because they 
called him “the loving heart,’—these are not stray illustrations 
from actual life. The Old Testament has made us familiar with 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE _ 267 


the expression that “the Ethiopian cannot change his skin.” The 
skin no doubt is tough and it may not be easy to eradicate the 
habits and qualities, mental and moral, due to the environment of 
climate, religion, and traditions which it connotes and breeds. But 
after all the skin is an external covering of the human body and 
if you creep inside it, you can discover God in the germ in every 
man, woman and child of every human race. The Biblical saying 
that an Ethiopian cannot change his skin has been taken to mean 
that racial nature is ineradicable. If that is so, why has the Bible 
used the word “skin” instead of employing the word “ nature ” 
to convey that idea? The studious use of the word “skin” is 
significant. And, as General Gordon used to say, we must creep 
inside the skin of a man to find his human point of view. ‘The 
same God dwells in all—our differences are, after all, but 
skin-deep. 

While that is so, to each race is given its own genius. The 
ancient Greek was different from the ancient Romans; the Jews 
had their own racial characteristics. Just as every individual has 
his own personality differentiating him from other individuals, so 
every race has its own peculiarities, enabling it to develop itself 
on their lines and thereby contribute to the civilisation of man- 
kind as a whole. Those peculiarities may prove a blessing if the 
development on their basis is directed by the knowledge and con- 
sciousness that all the races are the children of one God bound 
together by the chain of the brotherhood of Love. They prove a 
curse where the race becomes hidebound and is led by conceit of 
itself and treats other races as inferior doomed by nature to 
serfdom. 

I think that such of the racial variations as are skin-deep, due 
to the environment, traditions, and religion of a race and as re- 
tard its progress can be removed without detriment to or loss of 
those racial variations which constitute the peculiar genius of the 
race fitting it to contribute its quota to the civilisation of mankind 
as a whole. The racial variations which have proved a hindrance 
to that civilisation have persisted either because some races have 
lived a self-contained life of isolation, hidebound and separated 


268 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


from the rest of the civilised world, or because when they have 
been brought into contact with it, the more civilised and powerful 
race has treated the backward race as a race of helots, doomed by 
nature to inferiority, and exploited it for its own aggrandisement. 
The idea has prevailed that some races have been created by God 
as superior beings, destined to lord it over other races doomed to 
inferiority and remain in the lower scale of civilisation. This idea 
dates from the ancient times and has done much mischief in our 
own days owing to a misunderstanding of the laws of biology and 
the doctrine of Evolution made familiar to us in the nineteenth 
century by Darwin and Spencer. At the Annual Meeting of the 
Universities Mission to Central Africa, held in London, in May, 
1921, Bishop Gore presiding, Archdeacon H. W. Woodward, who 
had served the Mission since 1878, recounted his experiences 
which illustrate the way in which this race problem is treated by 
some European races in the name of Christianity. Archdeacon 
Woodward said: 


“We are told that the best way to civilise the African is to make 
him work. That depends upon what is meant by civilisation. 
Work does not necessarily Christianise and does not necessarily 
lead a man to Christianity. Once a man told me that the best way 
to help the Africans was to teach them to love strong drink and 
then they would work well in order to get money to buy it. He 
was a man with a title. I have often talked with settlers on the 
subject of work and they speak as though it were the remedy for 
all evils of body and soul.” ? 


The Venerable Archdeacon further stated: 


“T was in that country ten years before any other European 
(except the members of the Mission) came to it. I know that 
the general moral character of the tribe was higher than it is at 
the present time. Conduct, which would have been then con- 
demned by the whole tribe, is now treated as a matter of no con- 
sequence. I will not say that this is entirely due to the presence 
of Europeans. It is due also very much to the presence of foreign 
labourers like the Chinese and the Japanese. It has made our 


® See The Guardian; a London Weekly; 20th May, 1921; page 372. 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE — 269 


work harder than it would have been. It has been made harder 
still by the aloofness from religion on the part of many of our 
European brothers. In pre-war days the people looked upon most 
Europeans as non-Christians, if not absolute heathen. It was 
thought a most remarkable thing last year when an Assistant 
Political Officer went into a Church to say his prayers. The news 
went through all the country.” 


As another illustration of the mischievous and false view which 
a superior race takes of the races it considers inferior, | would 
cite what Lord Stanmore told the British Parliament in 1907. He 
said that a very large proportion of white settlers in Fiji held the 
view that the natives there ought to be deprived of the ownership 
of lands, because the natives would then be obliged to sell their 
labour. The late Hon. James Mason, a large planter and a mem- 
ber of the Legislative Council in Fiji, met His Lordship one day 
and grumbled at the state of things generally and the state of 
planting. Lord Stanmore said to him: he had just been moving 
about the Colony and witnessed more prosperity than had been 
two years ago,—in every native village new and better houses and 
extended civilisation, the people looking well-fed, and happy, more 
pigs and more poultry. Mr. Mason’s reply was: “ Yes, Sir, of 
course they are better off; and they are much better off; but we 
do not want them to be better off; we want them to be ill-off; 
when they are ill-off, they will come and work for us, but when 
they are well off, they will not.” Lord Stanmore, having re- 
counted that experience, told Parliament: 

“J took these words down at the time, and I have often thought 
of them since. They are an index of the antipathy which is dis- 
played on the part of many settlers to native occupation of land.” # 

This exploitation of the backward races by those higher in 
civilisation is really at the root of the mischiefs due to the race 
problems. Providence has intended that the different races 
should be inter-dependent and history shows that races have risen 
in the scale of civilisation by coming into contact with one an- 
other ; but that contact should be one of sympathy, of love as the 


*See the Official Reports of Parliamentary Debates: House of Com- 
mons: IVth series: Vol. 178; Cols. 476 and 478. 


270 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


golden rule of life for all races, and not one of exploitation for 
greed and selfish interests. History also proves—and the Bible 
is the most terse and trenchant history on the subject—that a 
superior race which exploits an inferior race for its own interests 
and aggrandisement digs its own grave by contracting the vices 
of the latter—giving to the world (as the Italian statesman Cavour 
said) a great lesson and teaching the most powerful nations that 
their crimes and their errors recoil sooner or later on those who 
commit them. 

It follows then: 

1. Providence has intended that the different races should be 
interdependent. It is a law of nature that a race which lives 
isolated from the rest of the world lives a life of stagnation 
and decay. 

2. Conquest and commerce are the two main agencies employed 
by Providence to bring the different races into contact with one 
another and learn from and help one another. 

3. Races superior in point of civilisation should help the in- 
ferior races, when they come in contact with the latter by means 
whether of conquest or commerce, by diffusing the blessings of 
education, sound religion, sanitation and the like. It should not 
be the help of exploitation. The inferior race should be encour- 
aged to stand on its own legs instead of being treated as inferior, 
doomed to servitude and unfit to rise in the scale of civilisation. 
Christ’s teaching: ‘Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is 
perfect,” “Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merci- 
ful,” is the soundest principle for wholesome practice in the regu- 
lation of intercourse between superior and inferior races. It is 
by following Christ’s golden rule of Life that racial differences 
can be gradually removed and the two Divine agencies of world- 
unity—conquest and commerce—be used, not abused, in fulfil- 
ment of the Divine purpose of racial differences. There is no 
other sovereign remedy for the eradication of those differences. 
It is a long and perhaps painful process, but as St. Paul truly said 
in Romans VIII: 

“We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
pain together until now. We are saved by hope. . . . Likewise 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 271 


the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. . . . And we know all 
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who 
are the called according to his purpose. . . . Nay, in all these 


things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” 

To what extent racial differences can be removed is a question 
which it is difficult to answer. Ours is to work, directed by the 
golden rule of Christ—the results are in His hands, whose instru- 
ments we are. So far as the world has moved forward, it has 
moved by the light of that rule. 

“Nothing,” wrote Kant, “can possibly be conceived in the 
world or out of it, which can be considered good without qualifi- 
cations except a good-will. Intelligence, wit, judgment, and other 
talents of the mind, however they may be named, or courage, 
resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubt- 
edly good and desirable in many respects; but these gifts may be- 
come extremely bad and mischievous, if the Will which is to make 
use of them and which, therefore, constitutes what is called Char- 
acter is not good.” 

On that Mr. Pringle Pattison in his Gifford Lectures on The 
Idea of God remarks: “The most perfect realisation of unity in 
variety is as naught, if there is nowhere anything to which we 
can attach this predicate of Value.” 

This principle of good will is in theory praised. There is no 
conquering nation which has denied in profession at least that its 
duty is to govern the conquered for the good of the latter. But 
the practice has more or less departed from the profession and 
measures designed in reality to serve the selfish interests of the 
conqueror have been supported on the ground that they are for 
the good of the conquered. That has been more or less the char- 
acter of modern diplomacy. The ancient conquerors, not having 
the benefit of expanded ideas of religion and the brotherhood of 
the human race which we moderns have, made their professions 
consistent with their practice. Modern conquerors have no excuse 
for the camouflage which marks the dealings of most, if not all of 
them, with the backward races, whether conquered or not. 

4. The scholars and learned men of the different races should 
form a brotherhood and become the bond of union among them. 


272 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Emerson has well defined a scholar as a man of all climes and 
ages. ‘The Universities as seats of learning should take up this 
question and become among the centres for propagating the ideas 
of human brotherlihood and propagate correct ideas on racial 
differences. 

5. The Press has come to be a most powerful agency for spread- 
ing ideas and forming opinions in these times. It is to this age 
what the Prophets were to the old ages. While the Press has done 
- much good to the world, it has done much harm also. As has been 
said, wars and racial animosities have often been made by the 
’ Press. The worst of it is that with the growth of industrialism 
and commerce, the Press has also been becoming more and more a 
commercial venture, fostering racial prejudices and pandering to 
racial vanity. The prophet of the age is becoming its pedlar. In 
these times of democracy, men and women hang on the news- 
papers and have no time to think or reason for themselves. It is a 
great deal in the hands of the Press to diffuse sound ideas on the 
question of race and racial differences. 

6. Above all, the churches should fulfil their proper function by 
insisting that races shall deal with one another on the cardinal 
principle of religion embodied in Christ’s teaching: “ Love thy 
neighbour as thyself”; “ All things whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” It has been re- 
corded of Alfred the Great that he gathered the laws of England 
together and ordered many to be written which the forefathers 
of Englishmen had held; he promulgated such of those laws as 
he approved, rejected those he disapproved and had other ordi- 
nances enacted with the counsel of his Witan; and he introduced 
the laws so enacted by quoting these rare and everlasting words 

of Jesus: “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them.” And quoting that he added: ‘ By this one 
commandment a man shall know whether he does right, and then 
_ he will require no other law book.” 


III. What is the teaching of Hinduism and Mohammedanism with 
regard to race? Please compare these religions and Chris- 
tianity in their relation to the race problem. 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 2738 


Hinduism: To understand the teaching of Hinduism with re- 
gard to race, it is necessary to bear in mind that Hinduism is not 
one creed, but a conglomeration of creeds, ranging from the high- 
est form of Monotheism to the lowest form of Animism. Just as 
Christ preached both to Jew and Gentile, “ Be ye perfect as your 
Father in Heaven is perfect,” thereby declaring to men of all 
races whatsoever, in spite of their racial differences, it is given to 
be perfect, and grow in point of character and personality, so also 
the Hindu Scriptures known as the Upanishads maintain that 
growth in perfection is open to all and within the reach of all 
because the Universe and every element, animate or inanimate in 
it, has the seed of perfection. Just as Christ sought to help that 
growth by leading His followers step by step, so also Hinduism 
maintains that men must be led gradually to the attainment of 
perfection. But there the comparison ends and the contrast be- 
gins. Christ chose His followers from amongst the most ignorant 
and sinful of people. He worked from the bottom to the top. 
He held before them the ideal of the Absolute and by its help 
raised them to “perfection.” ‘There He proved the true psy- 
chologist of human nature. FEjlevate the lower, the higher are 
necessarily elevated, being provoked to emulation (to use St. 
Paul’s words). But elevate the higher, it does not follow that the 
lower are also elevated. Hence Christ devoted His service to the 
finding and saving of “the lost sheep.” Christ has also proved 
that the masses and the most backward classes can be gradually 
raised more effectively by a straight and simple appeal to what is 
called “the tremendous dialectics ” and “the audacious logic” of 
the human heart than by an appeal to the logic of reasoning or 
the subtleties of Metaphysics or Theology. That was Christ’s 
way of winning men to the path of perfection. He made that path 
open to all without distinction of race. Hinduism, on the other 
hand, by its doctrine of caste, has practically inculcated the prin- 
ciple that a man’s destiny in life is determined by his birth; he 
cannot rise into a higher caste. An appeal to the Absolute, it 
holds, is for the highly cultured classes only—the lower classes, 
the average man must be left to conform to lower forms of wor- 
ship and life. In its operation, this way of Hinduism has had the 


274 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


effect of separating caste from caste and retarding the brother- 
hood of races. Hinduism for centuries, has banned travel to 
foreign lands for fear that its followers may get corrupted thereby. 
At the same time it has allowed foreigners to come and settle in 
India and live as a separate race. It has never put a ban on im- 
migration from foreign lands and of foreign races into India. 

This paradoxical attitude of Hinduism—its fear of the mix- 
ture of castes and races, its toleration of other races and faiths, 
represents both its weak and strong points. Toleration is good, 
but when allied to unreasonable fear of corruption from caste 
and race mixture it leads to stagnation. We see the result— 
Hinduism has become a mixture of multitudinous creeds and 
castes and disunion. This evil side of Hinduism has not been 
without a protest and a revolt against it from within its own fold. 
That protest and revolt came from Buddha first and after him 
from the saints of the school called Bhakts (Devotion), whose 
Bible is the Bhagavad-Gita and who flourished in the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries after Christ. According to popular and 
orthodox Hinduism, the world has passed through certain Ages 
such as the Golden and the Iron Age; the present Age is called the 
Age of Kali (the Destroyer). The popular belief about that Age 
is that it is destined to end in the mixture of castes and races, 
when anarchy will prevail and each man and each woman will 
break away from the bonds of authority and religion; and the 
world will become a chaos first and ruin afterwards. 

This Hindu belief formed the subject of a prophecy foretold in 
a Hindu Purana (mythological book) dating from 1000 B. c. 
There it is written of the present age: ‘The man who owns most 
gold and lavishly distributes it will gain dominion over all. Re- 
ligion will consist in wasting alms at large and self-willed women 
will seek for power. They who rule the State will rule the people 
and abstract the wealth of merchants on the plea of raising taxes. 
And in the world’s last age the rights of man will be confused, no 
property be safe.”*® The present Age, then, stands in the eye of 


* See this quoted by Sir F. Banbury in the House of Commons on the 
17th May, 1909, in opposing the Budget Resolutions of Mr. Lloyd George : 
Parl!’ Debs Vth Ser >? Vok' Vs Cots 10: 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 275 


popular Hinduism as the Age of Sin and Unrighteousness, bring- 
ing in its train all the evils of what is called Sankara, an Indian 
word meaning the corruption and ruin of mankind through mix- 
ture of the different races. 

Against this belief the saints I have above mentioned have 
fought hard and striven to dislodge it. They have praised the 
present Age as the Age of Hope and Salvation for human kind, 
especially the weakest and lowest of the human race. They have, 
therefore, represented it as the Golden Age of the World and de- 
scribed its virtues in glowing terms. According to them, in the 
past ages the masses were kept down by the higher classes and 
the true knowledge of God was made inaccessible to them. 
Rights of humanity were thereby withheld from the masses. But 
in the present age God has manifested Himself to all, irrespective 
of caste and race; even the meanest menial can now win God by 
simple devotion and a righteous life without the aid of formal 
rites and ceremonial religion which made religion and life a mat- 
ter of outward observances in the past and the privilege of the 
higher castes only. That in essence is the teaching of the 
Bhagavad-Gita—that God is no respecter of persons or races; that 
distinctions of colour (meaning race) have been ordained by Him 
not by the test of birth, but by the test of each man’s qualities and 
actions. Following that teaching, another Scripture of the Hindus 
—the Bhagavad Purana—declares that the Golden Age of the 
World was not in the Past, but that the present Kals Age is the 
Golden Age because it brings together all the different races and 
castes, high and low, into the bonds of brotherhood. This idea is 
the theme of numerous hymns composed by nearly all the Indian 
saints. Asa sample may be quoted here a hymn of the well known 
Maratha Saint Tukaram, who is the most popular saint among the 
masses in Western India and who lived in the sixteenth century 
A.D. In that hymn he sang: 

“God’s Liberty has come into the market places of the world. 
Let all freely partake of it. Come unto it, ye people of all castes; 
accept the free gift and share it to your heart’s content and be 
blessed.”” There is no distinction here of caste between man and 
man, high or low. 


276 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


In short, I may adopt the language of St. Paul and say that 
according to the saints in India, in the present Age we are no 
longer under the dominion of the Law (called the Shastras by 
Hinduism), but we are under grace, called upon to “serve in 
newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” This is 
the common meeting ground for Hinduism and Christianity with 
reference to the race problem. 

Coming now to the question of the race problem as viewed by 
Mohammedanism, the Prophet Mohammed made no distinction 
between race and race—he opened his creed to all. 

Now, to compare Hinduism, Mohammedanism and Christianity 
in their relation to the race problem, the defect of Hinduism (in 
its popular sense) is that it regards racial differences as natural 
and countenances the idea of fatalism. Hinduism is a religion of 
toleration—its doctrine is “ Live and let live.’ ‘These words sum 
up its popular creed. When I was a boy and was sent to a school 
kept by a Christian Missionary, the Missionary who taught us the 
Bible, every day for an hour, used to denounce Hinduism in vio- 
lent terms. My maternal grandfather, who brought me up and 
sent me to the school for education, was an orthodox Brahmin. 
I naturally resented the Missionary’s abuse of Hinduism. One 
day, unable to stand the abuse any longer, I complained to my 
grandfather. Instead of resenting the conduct of the Missionary, 
my grandfather counselled me to pay no heed to the Missionary’s 
view of Hinduism. “ But, Grandpapa,” I said, “is the Mission- 
ary right in saying that Hinduism is a false religion, and that 
Christianity is the only true religion?’ My grandfather replied 
as follows: 

“God is One but men are many. To each man God has given 
his own peculiar religion to follow. Man’s religion is determined 
for him according to the race he is born in. It happened in this 
way. Once upon a time a Christian, a Mohammedan and a Hindu 
approached God. The Christian asked: ‘How am I to worship 
Thee, O Lord?’ God made a cross of two fingers of His hand 
and so Christians worship the Cross. The Mohammedan next 
asked the same question. God held up the palm of His hand and 
showed him the five fingers of His hand. Therefore Moham- 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 277 


medans worship God in the form of those five fingers. Last of 
all the Hindu enquired likewise. To him God showed Himself as 
an idol and bade him worship God in that form.” “If that is 
so,’ I asked my grandfather, “all the three religions are true. 
Why, then, does the Christian Missionary abuse our Hindu re- 
ligion as false?’ My grandfather quieted me with the following 
answer: 

“Fach man ought to be proud of his own religion. So the 
Christian is proud of his. My boy, be proud of your own re- 
ligion and be tolerant of the rest! Listen quietly to the Mission- 
ary, but go on your own way, not minding what he says, but 
following the religion prescribed by God to us, Hindus.” 

I cite this for the purpose of illustrating my point that Hindu- 
ism is a religion of toleration sometimes carried to excess. It has 
no aggressiveness about it. It has enrolled even the Apostle of 
Atheism—Kapila—as one of its objects of worship. Thus 
Hinduism survives by yielding even where it ought not to yield 
and perpetuates among other evils the evil of caste and race 
differences. 

The defect of Mohammedanism is that it errs on the other side 
—it is intolerant. It treats all races not brought within its fold 
as “infidels.” That proves a hindrance to the right solution of 
the race problem and racial differences. 

Christianity as taught by Christ is wisely tolerant. He lived 
and taught by ub | 


“Working miracles 
Not on the waves and winds but in the wills 
Of men, upon the hearts of multitudes, 
Healing, restoring, blessing.” 


But the question is whether Christianity, meaning by it the 
Christianity of the Churches, has been “healing, restoring, bless- 
ing,” by walking in the footsteps of the Master as it should. The 
doctrine of “the White Man’s Burden,” “the Open Door,” and 
other phrases of modern polity in Europe have intensified the 
problem of racial differences with the result that, as remarked by 
the Archbishop of York in his address at the Church Congress 


278 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


held at Sheffield (England), in October, 1922, “ Religion attracts 
but the Church repels.” The Church repels because it has not 
kept faith with the Master as it should and has left the field of 
the race problem to politicians, statesmen and economists who have 
no vision beyond ‘‘ my country and race, right or wrong.” 


IV. What do you conceive to be the right solution of race prob- 
lems? In what senses are races equal or to be considered 
equal? What is your view of racial inter-marriage ? 

In my answer to Question No. II I have stated what, in my 
opinion, are the processes or forces to be employed for the re- 
moval of the superficial variations of the different races. To that 
I would here add that the right solution of race problems prima- 
rily depends on Education. 

Dr. Lester F. Ward, a great American authority upon the New 
Science of Sociology, has said in his book, Applied Soctology, 
that the only solution of racial problems lies in Education. 
“Wars,” so stated the London Times Literary Supplement, in its 
issue of the 16th of July, 1921, “are made in class rooms before 
they ever come up for discussion in the Council room of the 
States.” The last war, which has made havoc of the world and 
laid bare the evils of modern civilisation, was due (it is generally 
admitted) to the fact that the wells of youth had been poisoned 
by false notions of patriotism and nationality taught and encour- 
aged in the home and the school. If we are to solve the race 
problem, we must first solve the educational problem. The future 
citizens of a country must be caught young for that purpose. 
The education of a people does not mean education in schools and 
colleges only. It means the home also. Both in the home and the 
class room an atmosphere of wholesome patriotism and sound 
nationality should be created. Youth should be taught and 
brought up on and in the idea that patriotism and nationality are 
and ought to be paths leading to love of the human race—the 
brotherhood of the races. It is a wise saying of Bacon’s: “If I 
might control the literature of the household I would guarantee 
the well-being of the Church and the State.” How can peace and 
amity be secured among the different races when in the class 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 279 


rooms and homes youth are fed, so to say, on knowledge fostering 
false notions of love of one’s own country and race hatred or 
jealousy or contempt of other races? 

It is just three years since I had a painful experience in this 
matter. An Indian friend of mine, who occupies a high position 
as a member of the Indian Civil Service—a gentleman who has 
been to England and moved in English society and is widely 
cultured—was staying in a hotel with his accomplished wife— 
also an Indian—and their son, a boy ten years of age. In the same 
hotel resided a European lady with her son, about six years old. 
I used to go every morning to the hotel to see my Indian friend 
and his wife. For some days I found their son and the European 
boy playing together on friendly terms. The Indian boy spoke 
English as well as any English boy and both took kindly to each 
other. One morning, however, when I went up to the hotel, I 


heard the European boy say to the Indian boy: “I am not going 


to play with you. Don’t come near me. Mamma has asked me 


not to play with you, not to speak to you because you are a black 


99 


man.” This is how race conceit and hatred are fostered in | 


the home. 

Home life, they say, is gradually declining in Europe and Amer- 
ica and is being replaced by club life. I do not know how far 
that is true. But a good home or family life is the fountain of 
sound national life. The right solution of the race problem must 
begin with sound education in the atmosphere of the home and the 
class room. The infinite worth of man, whatever his race, of even 
the downmost man, should animate that atmosphere. 

The present is an industrial and economic age; and its indus- 
trial and economic arrangements have proceeded on lines which 
intensify the evil of class and racial differences. The right solu- 
tion of the race problem will come if the Age realises the value of 
the conclusions arrived at in 1920 by the Conference, held at 
Lambeth, and composed of 253 Bishops of the Anglican Church. 
In the Report issued by the Conference they say that experience 
has shown that the doctrine that the best possible condition of 
society as a whole is that in which different individuals, sections, 
interests, or classes pursue their own self interest is absolutely 


280 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


false; and that nothing less than a fundamental change in the 
spirit and working of our economic life is necessary. And they 
remark: “ This change can only be effected by accepting as the 
basis of industrial relations the principle of co-operation in service 
for the common good in place of unrestricted competition for 
private profit. . . . As God is our Father and as the Eternal 
Son of God took our whole human nature upon Him, every son 
and daughter of God is of infinite and equal value. There are 
wide differences in capacity, but such differences do. not warrant 
any loss of liberty or failure to give to the children of God the 
opportunity of a full human life.” 

In this alone lies the right solution of the race problem. 

Now, as to the question “in what sense are races equal or are 
considered to be equal.” 

Races, like individuals who compose a race, may not be equal— 
in fact are not—in point of intellectual, moral or physical endow- 
ments, but they are all equal in the sense that every race, like 
every man, is equally entitled to (1) life, (2) liberty, (3) the 
pursuit of happiness. These are the natural rights of every race 
as of every human being. That every human being is of worth 
goes without saying. No one in his senses, I believe, disputes 
that. As to liberty, every race has a right to live its own life and 
mould its own destiny, and to resist enslavement by another race. 
If we understand liberty in the only sense in which it makes man 
worthy—that is to say, the liberty to be a free man of God, living 
a life of service—a life of self-renouncing love—all races are 
equally fitted for it. 

I think St. Paul has helped us to discern in what sense all races 
are equal or are considered to be equal. “ Are all apostles? Are 
all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 
Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do 
all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts.” All races are 
_ equal in that power to covet which alone can solve the race 
problem. 

As to racial intermarriage, I do not agree with those who dis- 
approve of racial intermarriages and condemn them wholesale as 
leading to racial degeneracy. Why should an intermarriage prove 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE _ 281 


a failure if it is really a_love_ marriage? Intermarriages have 
proved unhappy (within my knowledge) because they have not 
been love marriages. Have not marriages between persons of the 
same race proved failures? I would not actively encourage a 
racial intermarriage. At the same time neither would I actively 
discourage and condemn it. The prejudice against intermarriage 
is rooted in racial prejudices and hatred. Remove the causes of 
the latter—the problem of racial intermarriage will solve itself. 


V. (a) What is the relation of Colour to the race problem? 
(b) What is the relation of Race to Nationality? 

As to (a): 

Though colour has not been the sole determining factor of 
racial differences, and even the different races of the same colour 
have prejudices against one another, leading to grave misunder- 
standings, sometimes ending in wars, yet colour is a more potent 
cause of those differences than anything else. It is in fact day 
by day proving the greatest hindrance to the solution of the race 
problem. Judging from the present, the world-struggle of the 
future threatens to be between the white races and the so-called 
coloured races. 

As to (b): | 

Race at one time played a very important part in the formation 
of nationalities. As pointed out by Mr. A. F. Pollard in his book 
on The Evolution of Parliament, “there are various means by 
which unity has been stamped upon the peoples of the world. In 
primitive times and backward communities it has been simply a 
matter of race.” But conquest, commerce, and other agencies of 
modern civilisation, which have brought the different races of the 
world into more or less contact and communion with one another, 
have tended to minimise the place of race upon nationality. Na- 
tionality—a term difficult to define precisely—has grown out of 
several elusive elements; but in the main it has come to be the 
product of a common political consciousness. In the words of 
Renan, “ nationality grows among a people composed of different 
races not out of identity of speech or race, but from the fact of 
having accomplished in the past great things in common with the 


282 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


desire to achieve like things in the future.” Nationality, in short, 
represents the idea of community of State or political sovereignty ; 
a race represents community of blood and descent. 


VI. What is the cause of racial prejudice? 

The proverb runs: “ Blood is thicker than water.” That is the 
root of all prejudice, racial included. To keep one’s blood pure 
is an instinct implanted by Nature in man to conserve all that is 
good in him. In that respect and so far racial prejudice is a 
virtue because it conserves society. But we do not often see 
rightly what is good and what is bad and our habit becomes a 
second nature, so that in the case of race, differences of colour, 
customs, manners, and religion intensify racial prejudice. Some 
years ago an American lady, a Professor in one of the Women’s 
colleges there, visited India. I met her and we had a long inter- 
view. In the course of our conversation she narrated to me an 
incident, which I shall describe here as a pointed illustration of 
how racial prejudices possess us, as it were, instinctively. The 
American lady met a fellow passenger on board the steamer carry- 
ing her to India. The English lady was coming out to India to 
join her brother, a military officer, stationed at Poona in the Bom- 
bay Presidency, and to keep home for him. The English lady 
told the American Professor that she felt so keenly interested in 
the people of India that on arrival at Poona and during her resi- 
dence there and elsewhere in India, she was going to move among 
Indians and try to be friendly, useful, and serviceable to them. 
“ But,” remarked the American lady, “to be useful and service- 
able you will have to overcome your racial prejudice. You will 
find Indians different from you in point of colour, habits, customs, 
and manners; and that may change your mind. Are you pre- 
pared to overcome your racial prejudice?” The English lady 
replied: ‘‘ Certainly I am prepared and I have no prejudice. I 
mean to rise above all prejudice.’ A few days after this conver- 
sation, the steamer arrived at the port of Aden. There both ladies 
with other passengers were watching the sight of black Negroes 
yelling, diving into the sea and coming up to amuse and get money 
out of the passengers, as their reward for all their quaint feats in 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE 288 


the sea. The English lady, shocked at the sight of the half-naked 
and black Negro boys and men, said to the American lady: “ How 
queer!” The latter asked: ““ Why do you say queer? It is queer 
because it is a new sight to you. You may more properly call it 
a strange sight, but to say it is queer means it is absurd, unnatural 
or foolish, but is it so really? Is not your racial prejudice account- 
able for your view of the sight? Is not your view queer, not the 
sight?” The English lady said to that: “It did not strike me 
that way.” The American lady advised: “It ought to strike you 
that way or else your racial prejudice will thwart your resolution 
to be useful, friendly and sympathetic to the people of India.” 
Racial prejudice is thus the result of differences of colour, customs 
and habits. The only way to get over it is to educate ourselves, so 
to say, in what Wordsworth finely calls “the sanctity of nature 
given to Man” in 


“That kind 
Of prepossession without which the soul 
Receives no knowledge that can bring forth good, 
No genuine insight ever comes to her.” 


VII. To what extent do the Indians admit or deny feelings either 
of racial superiority or racial inferiority between themselves 
and other races? 

The bulk of India’s people consists of Hindus and Moham- 
medans. Hindus have from ancient times regarded all other races 
as Mlenchas (a term carrying the same meaning as the word 
barbarian which the ancient Greeks used of foreigners with a 
view to exclude them from Greek morality). But the Hindus, 
notwithstanding that racial prejudice, have been distinguished for 
their spirit of toleration, so that their feelings of racial superiority 
have not been of a hostile or even contemptuous character. The 
Mohammedans of India share the Mohammedan feeling of racial 
superiority—all those who are not Mohammedans are “ infidels.” 
While that is so, it is to the credit of Indians that their feelings 
of race superiority have never been intense and aggressive as those 
of the European races. But modern politics, I am afraid, are 


284 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


tending to breed in Indians that intensity and aggressiveness of 
racial superiority. 


VIII. Are you yourself aware of having any feelings of race con- 
sciousness or racial prejudices? 

I am aware of having feelings of race consciousness, but I am 
not, I believe, aware of having any feelings of racial prejudice. 

I ought to make myself as clear as possible as to this answer. 

By race consciousness I understand the feeling of legitimate 
pride one has in one’s race by reason of its achievements and con- 
tribution to the service of mankind without being blind to its 
blemishes. Facial prejudice I take to mean the conceit one has of 
one’s own race accompanied by contempt or hatred of or indiffer- 
ence to the interests of other races. Race consciousness is love of 
other races as love of one’s own, because all are parts of one 
whole. Racial prejudice is loving one’s own race at the expense 
of other races. When Pasteur, on seeing his country, France, con- 
quered and humiliated by Germany in 18/0, felt for his race, and, 
resolving to raise its prestige in the eyes of the whole world and 
-so to remove that stigma of humiliation, devoted himself, heart 
and soul, to the cause of medical science and relief for the benefit 
of the whole human race, and when at last he proved one of the 
world’s benefactors, thereby increasing the honour of his race, it 
was race consciousness which prompted him to his glorious task. 
Bismarck was an instance of racial prejudice—the man of blood 
and iron who, proud of his Fatherland, worked to make Germany 
great at the expense of other races. 

The prophets of Israel had race consciousness, no race 
prejudice. 

Above all, the finest illustration of race consciousness was 
given when Jesus uttered: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth 
the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee! How often 
would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather 
her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” 


IX. In what respects is the caste problem in India like and unlike 
the inter-racial problem? 


AN INDIAN STATESMAN’S VIEW OF RACE ~— 285 


Caste in India would seem to have originated in the idea of dis- 
tinction by colour. That appears from the fact that in those of 
the ancient Hindu Scriptures in which it is mentioned it 1s desig- 
nated by the Sanskrit word Varna, meaning “colour.” But the 
idea of colour has in process of time disappeared altogether from 
the signification of caste, which has come to be determined solely 
by the Hindu community in which a person is born. So in re- 
spect of that signification, the caste problem and the inter-racial 
problem are alike. Birth is the determining factor of both. In 
point of prejudice against inter-dining and intermarriage, both 
problems are alike, but with this difference that, in the case of the 
inter-racial problem, the prejudice is not necessarily sanctioned by 
law, but only by the social opinion of the race concerned, whereas 
the prejudice sanctioned by caste had legal sanction from the 
state. A man who marries outside his caste—and for that purpose 
race is included in the term caste—lost some of his civil rights and 
his status, and the children by such marriage were deemed by law 
illegitimate. That was the original Hindu law, but British enact- 
ments have softened its rigours to some extent, so that a Hindu 
can now marry outside his caste or race without any forfeiture of 
civil rights. Thus both the caste problem and the inter-racial 
problem have become alike in that the prejudice against inter- 
dining and intermarriage can be enforced only by social but not 
legal penalties. 

While the two problems so far present common features, the 
caste problem is day by day becoming more easy of solution than 
the inter-racial problem. In the first place, caste has survived, 
so many centuries after its birth, because it has gone on adapt- 
ing itself quietly and without revolution or the bloodshed of civil 
wars to the changing conditions of time and circumstance. It has 
gone on conquering by yielding. The Hindu is nothing if not an 
adept in compromise—that is his strength in some respects; his 
weakness in many. Inter-dining and intermarriages are not 
treated with the same attitude of hostility and excommunication 
and social persecution that they aroused, say, even twenty years 
ago. The conditions of modern civilisation, the play of world 
forces, and the acuteness of the racial problem both in India and 


286 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


outside where Indians have emigrated and settled, have awakened 
Hindus to the weakness of their position created by caste dis- 
tinctions. So caste is losing gradually its old force, whereas the 
inter-racial problem seems to be gathering strength. In the second 
place, although caste was an institution devised in its inception for 
the economic arrangements of society on the principle of division 
of labour, it has since several centuries ceased to have that eco- 
nomic character. It is now merely a matter of religious and 
social arrangement, whereas the inter-racial problem is day by day 
becoming more and more a political and economic problem—a 
struggle between the different races for political power for eco- 
nomic ends—for food and wealth and over-lordship of the earth. 


Vil 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 


¢¢ , 


FE need na pray for peace,” remarked a character in Wee 
Macgregor, “gin the Lord gie ye laddies.” A world of 
races is no static world. The dream of a settled, undis- 

turbed order in such a world is an illusion. Perhaps that is one 
reason why God made races. Every race and all race relation- 
ships are undergoing change. ‘There is no stability of human 
types, and the heredity of racial superiority 1s as insecure as racial 
character.} 


“The Lord’s at the loom 
Room for Him, room! ” 


The races are here with a divine purpose, namely the di- 
versification and enrichment of the whole life of humanity, 
and there is a right solution of the problem of their relation-. 
ships. It is a confused spectacle which we witness if we look 
back over history or survey the world today, but a very little 
faith can see in it the struggle of the truth and love of God 
toward a world of unity and unselfishness, toward the subju- 
gation of what is partial and transient and evil to the higher 
and perfect law. But there are many who disbelieve this and 
there are many different conceptions both of the process and of 
the goal. 

1. There are those who see no future different from the past. 
The story of race in their view will be a story of continued strug- 
gle and conflict. These are the terms in which one school of stu- 


1 Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 103. Compare Meredith Townsend’s 
ideas of race stability and fixedness in Asia and Europe with the facts set 
forth in Gulick, Evolution of the Japanese; China Today through Chinese 
Eyes; Temple, Native Races and Their Rulers. 

* Kidd, Western Civilisation, p. 409. 


287 


288 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


dents of the race problem conceive it. The titles of their books, so 
frequently cited in these pages, express their view. They see the 
evidence of it all over the world. 


“Let the brown world once make up its mind that the white 
man must go, and he will go,” says Stoddard, “ for his position 
will have become simply impossible. It is not solely a question of 
a ‘Holy War’; mere passive resistance, if genuine and general, 
would shake white rule to its foundations. And it is precisely the 
determination to get rid of white rule which seems to be spreading 
like wild fire over the brown world today. . . . The crux of 
the African problem therefore resolves itself into the question 
whether the white man, through consolidated racial holds north 
and south, will be able to perpetuate his present political control 
over the intermediate continental mass.” And speaking of the 
Great War, “ As coloured men realised the significance of it all, 
they looked into each other’s eyes and there saw the light of 
undreamed-of hopes. ‘The white world was tearing itself to pieces. 
White solidarity was riven and shattered. And—fear of white 
power and respect for white civilisation together dropped away 
like garments outworn. ‘Through the bazaars of Asia ran the 
sibilant whisper: ‘’The East will see the West to bed!’ ” 


The chorus of mingled exultation, hate, and scorn sounded from 
every portion of the coloured world! * I have gone through the 
coloured world of Asia twice since the great War began and heard 
this chorus nowhere,—not one word of exultation, hate or scorn, 
but only the common sentiment of grief and shame at the old order 
and of hope and longing for a better day. No doubt writers of 
books and manipulators of parties in Asia talk the talk of strife, 
but the people are weary of the jungle with its raven and its 
fangs.° 

We must recognise that there are some who regard the con- 
tinuance of racial struggle as a good thing. Professor von 
Luschan, of the University of Berlin, ended his paper with this 
note at the Universal Races Congress in 1911: 


— ae 


* Stoddard, The Rising Tide of Colour, pp. 83, 89. 
POR Dis hs 
* Townsend, Asia and Europe, p. 214 f. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 289 


“Racial barriers will never cease to exist, and if ever they 
should show a tendency to disappear, it will certainly be better to 
preserve than to obliterate them. 

“The brotherhood of man is a good thing, but the struggle for 
life is a far better one. Athens would never have become what it 
was, without Sparta, and national jealousies and differences, and 
even the most cruel wars, have ever been the real causes of prog- 
ress and mental freedom. 

“As long as man is not born with wings, like the angels, he will 
remain subject to the eternal laws of Nature, and therefore he will 
always have to struggle for life and existence. No Hague Con- 
ferences, no International Tribunals, no international papers and 
peace societies, and no Esperanto or other international language, 
will ever be able to abolish war. 

“The respect due by the white races to other races and by the 
white races to each other can never be too great, but natural law 
will never allow racial barriers to fall, and even national bound- 
aries will never cease to exist. 

“Nations will come and go, but racial and national antagonism 
will remain; and this is well, for mankind would become like a 
herd of sheep, if we were to lose our national ambition and cease 
to look with pride and delight, not only on our industries and 
science, but also on our splendid soldiers and our glorious iron- 
clads. Let small-minded people whine about the horrid cost of 
Dreadnoughts; as long as every nation in Europe spends, year 
after year, much more money on wine, beer, and brandy than on 
her army and navy, there is no reason to dread our impoverish- 
ment by militarism.” ® 


And Americans and Englishmen have yielded to or even advo- 
cated this same theory of the jungle solution of race as the only 
possible solution. Mr. Mann, of Illinois, said in Congress in a 
discussion of the Philippine Islands: “I have no doubt that a 
conflict will come between the Far East and the Far West across 
the Pacific Ocean. All that is taking place in the world, the logic 
of the history of the human race up to now, teaches us that the 
avoidance of this conflict is impossible. I hope it will be only a 
commercial conflict. I hope war may not come, but [ have little 
faith in this world of ours that people and races are able to meet 
in competition for a long period of time without armed conflict. 


° Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 23. 


290 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


A fight for commercial supremacy leads in the end to a fight with 
arms, because that is the final arbiter between nations.’ And 
Professor Dicey, of Cambridge University, declared: “In every 
part of the world where British interests are at stake, 1 am in 
favour of advancing and upholding these interests, even at the 
cost of annexation and at the risk of war. The only qualification 
I admit, is that the country we desire to annex or take under our 
protection, the claims we choose to assert, and the cause we decide 
to espouse, should be calculated to confer a tangible advantage 
upon the British Empire.” 7 

The classic enunciation of this view of the inevitable continu- 
ance of the present order of rival races, with the tables ever turn- 
ing more and more against the white peoples is the picture of C. 
H. Pearson in National Life and Character: 


“The day will come, and perhaps is not far distant, when the 
European observer will look round to see the globe girdled with a 
continuous zone of the black and yellow races, no longer too weak 
for aggression, or under tutelage, but independent, or practically 
so, in government, monopolising the trade of their own regions, 
and circumscribing the industry of the European ; when Chinamen 
and the nations of Hindustan, the States of South America, by that 
time predominantly Indian, and it may be African nations of the 
Congo and the Zambesi, under a dominant caste of foreign rulers, 
are represented by fleets in the European seas, invited to interna- 
tional conferences, and welcomed as allies in the quarrels of the 
civilised world. The citizens of these countries will then be taken 
up into the social relations of the white races, will throng the 
English turf, or the salons of Paris, and will be admitted to inter- 
marriage. It is idle to say that, if all this should come to pass, our 
pride of place will not be humiliated. We were struggling 
amongst ourselves in a world which we thought of as destined to 
belong to the Aryan and to the Christian faith, to the letters and 
arts and charm of social manners which we have inherited from 
the best times in the past. We shall wake to find ourselves 
elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside, by peoples 
whom we looked down upon as servile and thought of as bound 
always to minister to our needs.” 


* Nineteenth Century, Sept. 1899, art. on “Peace and War in South 
Africa.” 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 291 


We cannot feel very greatly indebted to those who offer us this 
as the only solution of the problem of race relationships.® 

2. A second solution is offered by those who believe in the 
isolation and segregation of the races. Some argue that the West 
should leave the East alone, or at least interfere as little as it can. 
Some years ago a book appeared under the title, “ What Social 
Classes Owe to One Another,” and the answer given was, “ Above 
all to keep apart.” ® With some this is a counsel of sheer desper- 
ation. So Mr. Rowell argues in his defense of Japanese exclusion 
from California. 


“Our people have learned their racial lessons in a dangerous 
school. We have dealt with two inferior darker races, but never 
with an equal one, and we have dealt always unjustly. We have 
dealt unjustly with the Negro and he submits. We have dealt 
unjustly with the Indian and he is dead. If we have many Japan- 
ese, we shall not know how to deal otherwise than unjustly with 
them, and very properly they will not submit. The only real 
safety is in separation. Nature erected a barrier which man will 
overpass only at his peril. . . . On the great problem let this 
nation resolve as firmly as California is resolved that one side of 
the Pacific shall be the white man’s and the other side the brown 
man’s frontier. Only so is our race, our civilisation, or the peace 
of the world secure.” 1° 


Generally, however, in the field of race relationships one seldom 
hears this view urged in behalf of the lower races except as 
against Christian missions. It is usually advanced in behalf of the 
white races, either by those who want to protect the supremacy of 
those races or by those who regard the invasion of other racial 
territory by white men as right, but all invasion of white men’s 
territory by other races as wrong.’? Mr. Madison Grant repre- 


® Dean Inge does not offer a much more hopeful view in his essay on 
“The White Man and His Rivals” in Outspoken Essays, Second Series, 
pp. 209-230. 

®> Western Races and the World, p. 18. 

° The New Republic, Sept. 15, 1920. Art. by Chester H. Rowell, “ Cali- 
fornia and the Japanese Problem.” 

u“The mass of the European population in South Africa knows very 
little about the situation. Its imagination has been captured by the loose 
use of that blessed word ‘segregation,’ so that it now declares that segre- 


292 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


sents the first group. He would not even share the white race’s 
ideals with other people: ‘Democratic ideals among a homo- 
geneous population of Nordic blood, as in England or America, is 
one thing, but it is quite another for the white man to share his 
blood with, or entrust his ideals to, brown, yellow, black or red 
men. This is suicide pure and simple, and the first victim of this 
amazing folly will be the white man himself.” 72 Of the other 
group Wu Ting Fang once spoke plainly: 


“Tt is said that some couritries should be reserved exclusively 
for white people, and that no race of another colour should be 
permitted there. When such a doctrine is openly approved by 
statesmen in the West, the yellow or coloured race should in fair- 
ness be allowed to act upon it themselves. Patriotism is an excel- 
lent quality ; but to preach the dogma of colour, race, or national- 
ism is a matter of grave international importance, and should not 
be handled without serious consideration. If such a doctrine 
should spread and be generally followed, men would become more 
narrow-minded than ever, and would not hesitate to take undue 
advantage of peoples of other colour or race whenever an oppor- 
tunity occurred. Altruism would certainly disappear. Instead of 
friendly feelings and hearty co-operation existing between Occi- 
dental and Oriental peoples, there would be feelings of distrust, 
ill-will, and animosity towards each other; constant friction and 
disputes would take place and might ultimately lead to war. I 
have noticed that this cry of ‘ White policy’ has been raised, not 
by the aborigines, who might have some excuse, but by the de- 
scendants or settlers who had conquered and, in many cases, 
killed the aborigines of the country, which they now want to keep 
for themselves, and by politicians who recently migrated to that 
country. Is this fair or just? ‘To those who advocate such a 
policy, and who no doubt call themselves highly civilised people, I 
would remark that I prefer Chinese civilisation. According to the 
Chinese civilisation, as interpreted in the Confucian classics, we 
are taught that ‘ we should treat all who are within the four seas 
as our brothers and sisters; and that what you do not want done 
to yourself you should not do to others.’ 


gation is the policy of South Africa, by which it understands that a place 
will be found somewhere for the native far enough away to prevent his 
mixing or competing with the Europeans, but not so far away that he can- 
not return periodically to do their rough manual labour.”—London Times, 
April 24, 1923. 

? Introduction to The Rising Tide of Colour, p. 32. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 293 


“Until racial and national feeling is eliminated from the minds 
of Occidental peoples, it is to be feared genuine friendship and 
cooperation between them and Oriental peoples cannot really 
exist, «14 


As a matter of fact the principle of segregation rightly inter- 
preted and applied is a sound and just principle and essential to 
the educational processes through which God is putting each race 
and all humanity.4* Each people needs room to develop its own 
character and contribution to the common wealth of mankind. 
And there is valid ground in this principle for righteous and rea- 
sonable immigration laws on the part of the white people and 
there is equally valid ground for the claim of other races for pro- 
tection against white invasions which hinder and do not help their 
own racial development.’® 

Marcus Garvey zealously argues for the segregation of the 
Negro people in a republic of their own in Africa: 


“We believe that the black people should have a country of 
their own where they should be given the fullest opportunity to 
develop politically, socially and industrially. The black people 
should not be encouraged to remain in white people’s countries 
and expect to be Presidents, Governors, Mayors, Senators, Con- 
gressmen, Judges and social and industrial leaders. We believe 
that with the rising ambition of the Negro, if a country is not pro- 
vided for him in another 50 or 100 years, there will be a terrible 
clash that will end disastrously to him and disgrace our civilisa- 
tion. We desire to prevent such a clash by pointing the Negro to 
a home of his own. We feel that all well-disposed and broad- 
minded white men will aid in this direction. . . . Looking for- 
ward a century or two, we can see an economic and political death 
struggle for the survival of the different race groups. Many of 
our present-day national centres will have become overcrowded 
with vast surplus populations. The fight for bread and position 
will be keen and severe. The weaker and unprepared group is 
bound to go under. ‘That is why, visionaries as we are in the 


8 Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 131 f. 

“For a statement of the argument against the “ Separation of Black and 
White in the Church,” see The East and the West, July, 1914, pp. 330-334. 

See World Dominion, March 15, 1924. Art. by C. T. Loram, “Race 
Relationship in South Africa,” p. 43 f, 


294 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Universal Negro Improvement Association, we are fighting for 
the founding of a Negro nation in Africa, so that there will be no 
clash between black and white and that each race will have a sepa- 
rate existence and civilisation all its own without courting sus- 
picion and hatred or eyeing each other with jealousy and rivalry 
within the borders of the same country.” 1° 


The same issue of Current History which publishes Garvey’s 
article prints also a paper by Judge Robert Watson Winston, of 
North Carolina, advocating the same solution of the race problem 
in the southern states. Judge Winston writes as a friend of the 
Negro, 1. e., of “the white man’s Negro,” “ unambitious, likable,” 
“with his hat in his hand.” “I sucked the breast of a Negro 
woman,” he writes, “ listened to the wonderful tales of my father’s 
slaves, rode ‘horse’ on their backs, swam and fished with them, 
and ate their ash cake in the cabin. The Negro, I think, is my 
friend; I know I am his.” Judge Winston’s view is that the 
Negro and the white are homogeneous races and that “no two 
homogeneous races will long continue to exist side by side in the 
same country on terms of perfect equality without race blending,” 
that there ought not to be race blending, that accordingly the 
colour line must be maintained and the Negro be held under un- 
yielding social and political inequality, that the Negro will not 
submit to this and ought not to submit, that “self determination 
is of God, not of man.” “The Negro desires to be free, and he is 
right. ‘The white man claims that the South is his to rule and 
control, and he, too, is right.” The solution is the removal of the 
Negro from the South, either to sections of the United States 
which will accord him equality, or preferably to Africa.47 While 
Judge Winston advocates the Negro’s departure, southern legis- 
latures are proposing to make it a felony for any one to lure 
him away./® 

No principle of segregation, however, whether viewed practi- 
cally or in the form of some chimerical isolation of all races from 


* Current History, Sept., 1923. Art. by Marcus Garvey, “The Negro’s 
Greatest Enemy,” p. 957. 

™ Tbid., “ Should the Colour Line Go?” pp. 945-951. 

* The New York Times, July 20, 1923. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 295 


contact with other races, can solve the race problem. The removal 
of the Negro race from the South would not solve the race prob- 
lem in the southern states. It would be simply a temporary 
evasion of it. Wherever the Negroes should go, white men from 
the South would still have dealings with them unless such white 
men were to separate themselves from the indissoluble common 
life of the world. Complete isolation is an absolute impossibility. 
For good or for ill, and our faith is that it is for good, the inter- 
course of the races is ever to increase and the race problem is 
inherent in that intercourse. All that proper segregation can do 
is to protect each race in its just rights and liberties, supply it the 
opportunity of true self-development, and strip the problem of 
relationships of as many unnecessary friction contacts as possible. 

The problems of race separation emerge in their most difficult 
forms in the question of Oriental immigration to the United States 
and Canada and Australia, in the exploitation of tropical lands 
and of undeveloped resources in other lands by the entrance of 
white men, and in the relation of the white and coloured races in 
our own country. The third of these, of which Judge Winston 
and Mr. Garvey have just been speaking, is the one that presses 
most upon our thought. We shall return to it and to the difficult 
social problems which it presents. Meanwhile it will suffice to 
quote the careful statement of E. G. Murphy, one of the best 
leaders of the New South, and one of the most sympathetic friends 
of the Negro race, regarding the principle of segregation in the 
southern states. He assumes the impossibility of any removal of 
the Negro race from the South. He has recognised the unity of 
interest in the two races, living on the same soil under one flag a 
common life, and he proceeds: 


“Ours is a double population, a population divided by the felt 
and instinctive diversities of race. The land is occupied by two 
families of men between whom the difference in colour is, per- 
haps, the least of the distinctions which divide them. The differ- 
ences in racial character are accentuated by the differences of 
social heritage—one is the population of the free-born, one has 
been the population of the slave-born. 

“The doctrine of race integrity, the rejection of the policy of 


296 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


racial fusion, is, perhaps, the fundamental dogma of southern life. 
It is true that the animalism of both races has at times attacked it. 
The formative dogmas of a civilisation are reflected, however, not 
in the vices of the few, but in the instincts, the laws, the institu- 
tions, the habits of the many. This dogma of the social segrega- 
tion of the races, challenged sometimes by fault of the black man, 
challenged sometimes by fault of the white man, is accepted and 
approved and sustained by the great masses of our people, white 
and black, as the elementary working hypothesis of civilisation in 
our southern states. 

“The great masses of our coloured people have themselves de- 
sired it. It has made our public school system, however, a double 
system; and it is inevitable that it should have often made the 
Negro schools inferior to the white schools. But the social and 
educational separation of these races has created the opportunity 
and the vocation of the Negro teacher, the negro physician, the 
Negro lawyer, the Negro leader of whatever sort. It has not only 
preserved the coloured leader to the Negro masses by preventing 
the absorption of the best Negro life into the life of the stronger 
race; it has actually created, within thirty years, a representation 
of Negro leadership in commerce, in the professions, in Church, 
and School, and State, which is worthy of signal honour and of 
sincere and generous applause. The segregation of the race has 
thrown its members upon their own powers and has developed the 
qualities of resourcefulness. The discriminations which they have 
borne in a measure by reason of their slavery, and which have 
established the apartness of their group-life, are the discrimina- 
tions which are curing the curse of slavery—an undeveloped in- 
itiative—and are creating the noblest of the gifts of freedom, the 
power of personal and social self-dependence. The very process 
which may have seemed to some like a policy of oppression has in 
fact resulted in a process of development.” 79 


A social principle of segregation which will protect race rights 
and personalities on both sides, when two races occupy common 
ground and live in the same communities, is vastly more difficult 
than when they live in different continents, and wise men, both 
white and black, recognise the need of the most sympathetic com- 
mon study and readjustments of many relationships. One of the 
finest things in the world today is the way in which the people of 
the South, white and black, are facing the situation. 


* Murphy, The Present South, pp. 34 f, 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 297 


Just as the attempt to find a basis of relationship which would 
be mutually protecting and mutually respecting and self-respecting 
has been beset with many difficulties and failures among us, so has 
it been in the contact of races in other continents. The impossi- 
bility of race separation, the inevitableness of the contact of com- 
merce, culture, government and religion in these continents has 
brought much wrong and injustice. If these contacts of race with 
race had been wrong in principle or avoidable in practice, the evil 
of them would doubtless have outweighed the good. But racial 
associations are both right and desirable and necessary and, much 
as we lament the evils of them, there is ground for believing that 
these evils have been less than the policy of isolation would have 
entailed. E'ven with all the horrors of the slave and liquor traffic 
in Africa, this view may be maintained, and still more in the case 
of North and South America, where the Indians are more numer- 
ous and more happy than they ever were in the days before the 
European conquest. And of Asia, too, we have Vambery’s de- 
liberate judgment: 


“Tf we start with the assumption that every man has a right 
to his own opinion and to the views which best correspond with 
his ideas of morality and material comfort, our pretended crusade 
in the name of civilisation must look like an unwarrantable inter- 
ference. But the correctness of this assumption has so far been 
contradicted by historical events, for no community can remain in 
absolute isolation. Even China, the prototype of a seclusion ex- 
tending over thousands of years, has before now migrated far 
into neighbouring lands. If Rome and Greece had remained 
within the narrow precincts of their native lands humanity would 
not have reached the present height of culture, and if Western 
nations had checked their passion for migration the aspect of 
things in Asia would now be even worse than it actually is. 

“ During the much-extolled golden era of the history of Asia, 
tyranny and despotism were the ruling elements, justice a vain 
chimera, everything depended on the arbitrary will of the Sov- 
ereign, and a prolonged period of rest and peace was quite the 
exception. 

“When fanatics and enthusiasts profess that our culture in 
Asia has only engendered poverty and misery, and that the coming 
of the Westerners has been a curse to mankind in the East, these 


298 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


expressions are merely the outcome of a morbid fancy, or of total 
ignorance of the real situation. Wherever, and in whatever garb, 
the influence of the modern world of culture has asserted itself, 
the transformation period may have caused a temporary disturb- 
ance in social and economical life; but, as soon as the time of trial 
was past, peace, prosperity, and contentment have taken up their 
abode there, and even poverty, which still shows itself here and 
there in spite of the prevailing well-regulated conditions, is less 
oppressive than in the time when these countries were dependent 
upon themselves. Only arrant malevolence or wilful blindness can 
persist in seeing a disadvantage in the activity displayed by West- 
ern lands in favour of the Asiatic world.” 7° 


No isolation of the races is possible. They are mingled now 
beyond all possibility of separation. The race problem cannot be 
solved by any futile proposals of segregation.24 In two cases, the 


Western Culture in Eastern Lands, pp. 4 £., 394. 

7 “Exclusion is no solution of the problem. Its most ardent supporters 
will sometimes admit that it can never be more than a temporary expedient. 
Since the Jews, the most exclusive of peoples, became scattered among the 
nations of the world, it has become more and more evident that men, 
nations and races were made to mingle. No man can live to himself; nor 
can any nation, permanently; nor any race. The western nations showed 
their appreciation of this law of creation when they forced open the barred 
doors of the Far East and rudely disturbed the contented Asiatics from the 
sleep of ages. In their turn the Asiatics, having had the principle of free 
intercourse thus forced upon them, feel that they have a right to demand 
that the principle be mutually observed. Forbidden to exclude, they resent 
being excluded. . . . Deeply offended, the Asiatic is nevertheless too 
wise to kick against steel spikes. The West closes her lands to him. 
‘Very well,’ he says to himself, ‘she cannot close the sea. I shall go to 
sea.’ To sea he has gone. Asiatic crews man nearly all the big mercantile 
vessels that trade now in the Pacific, and many besides in the Atlantic. 

“Tf it is unfair to allow Asiatics to compete with whites side by side in 
the colonies, it is doubly unfair to allow goods to be made by Asiatics in 
Asia to compete with colonial products. Asiatic workers, admitted to the 
colonies, would have to conform in some degree to white men’s standards; 
in Asia they can be sweated without restraint. To sum up:—Exclusion of 
Asiatic immigrants, without exclusion of Asiatic imports, becomes eco- 
nomically foolish. . . . 

“The policy of exclusion seemed to be the means of averting strife in the 
past; it now appears that it was a mere dam against the natural current, 
and that the waters are rising behind the dam to break over with doubled 
and redoubled power of destruction. Exclusion fails. The inevitable meet- 
ing of East and West is near. Both sides recognise the fact. And both 
sides are preparing, in time-honoured manner, to celebrate their meeting 
with a trial of strength on the field of death.’-—(Report of Commission 
II of the Committee of the Peace Conference of All Friends. John A 
Brailsford, “ National Life and International Relations.” ) 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 299 


Negro and the Jew, the problem of the relationships of the race is 
greatest when the race is furthest from that original home where 
alone it might have preserved its integrity and distinctions. Scat- 
tered about in other lands, over all continents, these two peoples 
are losing ever more and more their segregation and are under- 
going, whether for good or for evil, an ever extending infiltration 
of other blood.?? 

Fundamentally, moreover, a rigid and mechanical racial segre- 
gation, even if it were possible, would have the same deadening 
effect on humanity that it has had for centuries in China and India. 
The Indian system of caste carried segregation to its completion, 
as we have already seen, and with fatal results, as Tagore has 
unflinchingly pointed out.?* 


3. A third: solution of the race problem is the proposal that the 
civilised races should rule all the rest of the world. This proposal 
is now, however, ‘only a reminiscence of another day. There was 
a time when the notion was seriously held. It is still seriously 
held, if Professor Josey is really serious in his view in Race and 
National Solidarity, in which he argues that the white race is 
justified in its policy of world domination in order that other races 
may do the heavy tasks and give the white race leisure for esthetic 
and artistic self-expression. 


“It may be taken as certain,’ he writes, “that we wish for a 
rich and complex culture, one that is highly organised, one that 
provides many opportunities for making life worth while, one that 
encourages artistic fruitfulness. It is no less certain, (he con- 
tinues) that such a society is only possible where there is a con- 
siderable surplus of wealth. An account of the sources of our 








This is the dark view. There is another and brighter one, namely, that 
the races are not preparing for a struggle on the field of death but are 
seeking for the solution of the problem of their destiny and relationships 
in the establishment of a rational world life. The League of Nations, the 
Court of International Justice, disarmament, economic co-operation under 
true economic principles and with adequate common instrumentalities, and 
service and unity under the Headship of Christ are elements in the Chris- 
tian program which to many men are quite chimerical, some more and some 
less so, but to other men are as reasonable as light and as sure as time. 

” Cf. Belloc, The Jews, p. 185. 

* Tagore, Nationalism, p. 137. 


300 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


wealth reveals how largely it is used in a world specialisation of 
function of which we are the beneficiaries. Unless we are able 
to maintain our position of advantage we shall be deprived of the 
wealth that 1s the necessary basis of our rich and colourful 
culture.” 74 


But why have “colour” in our culture if coloured races are to be 
excluded from our civilisation? Would it not be more consistent 
to bleach our culture pure white? Professor Josey’s view, how- 
ever, is nothing but the Prussian doctrine of the German State 
transferred to the white race. It is fatuous to think that the other 
races will take this doctrine lying down, or that the attempt to 
apply it, whether by military force, which is impossible, if for no 
other reason, simply because the young men of the white race will 
not fight for such a lie, or by economic processes, would have any 
other consequences than those which followed the Prussian de- 
lusion. Its echoes can still be heard in Kipling’s “ Recessional,” 
and even in “ The White Man’s Burden.” ‘The white man was to 
govern the coloured man. The governors would supply the char- 
acter and brains, for compensation and retiring allowance, but 
there must be no prohibition law, a reasonable laxity in the matter 
of concubinage and the coloured man must do the chores. Elimi- 
nating the immorality and conceiving the task in terms of service, 
good men preached this doctrine two decades ago. Some thought 
that the subordinated races really enjoyed their place. Kidd cited 
Milner’s words that British influence in Egypt “is not exercised 
_to impose an uncongenial foreign system upon a reluctant people. 
It is a force making for the triumph of the simplest ideas of hon- 
esty, humanity and justice, to the value of which Egyptians are 
just as much alive as any one else.” *° Others thought that Anglo- 
saxon domination of the world was the predestination of Provi- 
dence. In the year 1895, when relations between Great Britain 
and America were shadowed by the difficulty over the Venezuelan 
boundary question, at the English service on Christmas morning 
at the American Mission Church in Teheran, Persia, the custom- 


* Op. cit., see pp. 61, 87, 213, 219. 
* Kidd, The Control of the Tropics, p. 94. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 301 


ary prayer for the Queen and the President “ that they may van- 
quish and overcome all their enemies ” was omitted and a prayer 
for peace substituted. An English officer present was much im- 
pressed and wrote an ingenuous prayer in the form of a sonnet, 
referring to the incident, and closing with the lines: 


“Two mightiest nations, may we sheathe the sword 
That our great destiny be not refused, 
The common faith we hold from common birth, 
To spread Thy glory and to rule Thine earth.” 


Careful students like Sir Alfred Lyall thought that it was in- 
conceivable that China would remain “ under the oppressive bur- 
den of an antiquated and discredited official hierarchy.” He saw 
the whole of Asia subject to the white people: “ Every part of it, 
whether decaying or reviving, lies under the shadow of Europe, 
and the whole region has exchanged the old state of chronic war- 
fare, dynastic insecurity, and perpetual shifting of frontiers, for 
submissive acquiescence in the ascendency of the white races. 
And such, it has been confidently asserted, will before long be 
the condition of the whole continent, whenever the western shadow 
shall have lengthened until it falls over China.” 7° But he could 
not believe that this would be Asia’s ultimate destiny : 


“It seems to me, in short, that those who believe the tide of 
European predominance in Asia to be still rising must take into 
account the growth of various forces and circumstances which 
hold it in check and throw it backward. The paramount fact that 
all the temperate zone is virtually occupied by firmly planted na- 
tionalities or strong governments, has altered and is transforming 
the course and character of the vicissitudes of dominion. The old 
conquests, wherever they were permanent, rested upon multi- 
tudinous invasion, upon intermixture of races, and upon acclima- 
tisation. ‘The armies or hordes subdued a country, settled down 
among the people, intermarried with them, imposed new customs 
and creeds or adopted those of the subject races. All this blend- 
ing of blood, of manners, and of religions produced material and 
moral acclimatisation, whereby the ruling or foreign element 
usually consolidated its dominion.” °7 


8 Asiatic Studies, Second Series, pp. 371, 375. 
7 Thid., p. 380. 


302 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


This is not the character of white dominion over other races. 
And nowadays it is pretty generally recognised that that dominion 
is doomed. The race problem is not to be solved by white sover- 
eignty over coloured peoples. Even in South Africa, where the 
white race has dominion and is likely to retain it for some time, 
men see that the repressionist policy as applied to race education 
and advancement is impossible.** And in general the idea of the 
subjection of race to race is surrendered. “I do not believe,” says 
the late Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Province of Ni- 
geria, “ that one race can remain subject to another for an indefi- 
nite length of time. I hold strongly that fusion, extermination, or 
the reclamation of liberty of action must sooner or later be the 
destiny of the subject race.”?® And Mr. Weale quotes John 
Stuart Mill’s words, “ Such a thing as government of one people 
by another does not and cannot exist,” and adds, 


“Did he mean that it is a foolish dream to conceive it possible 
for one people permanently to rule over another people? He did 
mean it, and he was quite right in meaning it. . . . Men now 
fully understand that it is not mere suzerainty, but actual owner- 
ship, which is claimed by the white man wherever he has raised his 
flag ; and since it has been clearly proved by past history that this 
virtual slavery of the coloured man is unnatural and can never 
lead to the fusion of the races, it is only just and logical to admit 
that the attitude of the man of colour in demanding back rights 
long usurped by intruders, is one which is bound in the end to be 
crowned with signal success.” °° 


And fundamentally, as William James asks in one of his letters, 
“what right of eminent domain has the white man over darker 
TACes niin: 

Once again, it may be said that the race problem is not to be 
solved by the subjection of race to race. Economic subjection 
may be attempted when it is seen that political subjection is im- 


* Loram, The Education of the South African Native, pp. 17-20. 

” Temple, Native Races and Their Rulers, p. 78. 

° The Conflict of Colour, pp. 189 f., 291. 

The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1922, art., “The Negro 
View of the White Man.” 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 303 


possible, but this, too, will fail as a solvent of race friction and 
prejudice.s* Sooner or later it will aggravate it. The true solu- 
tion must still be sought. 

4. A fourth solution which is offered to us is eugenics. As 
between race and race, eugenics leads us on to the wider question 
of inter-racial marriages, but eugenics may deal either with inter- 
marriage between races or with the attempt so to breed any one 
race as to check tendencies of deterioration or to lift it to higher 
levels of character and efficiency. The forerunner of our modern 
race eugenics was Francis Galton. He was thinking chiefly of 
eugenics within a race, but his view was also inter-racial. “ Eu- 
genics,” he wrote, “is the science which deals with all influences 
which improve the inborn characters of a race, also with those 
which develop these to the utmost advantage.” In Inquiries into 
Human Faculty, a germinal book, in 1883, he wrote: 


“Whenever a low race is preserved under conditions of life 
that exact a high level of efficiency, it must be subjected to rigour- 
ous selection. The best specimens of that race can alone be al- 
lowed to become parents, and not many of their descendants can 
be allowed to live. On the other hand, if a higher race be substi- 
_ tuted for the low one, all this terrible misery disappears. The 
most merciful form of what I ventured to call ‘eugenics’ would 
consist in watching for the indications of superior strains or races, 
and in so favouring them that their progeny shall outnumber and 
gradually replace that of the old one. Such strains are of no in- 
frequent occurrence. It is easy to specify families who are char- 
acterised by strong resemblances, and whose features and 
character are usually prepotent over those of their wives or hus- 
bands in their joint offspring, and who are at the same time as 
prolific as the average of their class. These strains can be con- 
veniently studied in the families of exiles, which, for obvious rea- 
sons, are easy to trace in their various branches. 3 

“The debt that most countries owe to the race of men whom 
they received from one another as immigrants, whether leaving 
their native country of their own free will, or as exiles on political 
or religious grounds, has been often pointed out, and may, I think, 
be accounted for as follows:—The fact of a man leaving his com- 
patriots, or so irritating them that they compel him to go, is fair 


See Olivier, White Capital and Coloured Labour. 


304 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


evidence that either he or they, or both, feel that his character is 
alien to theirs. Exiles are also on the whole men of considerable 
force of character; a quiet man would endure and succumb, he 
would not have energy to transplant himself or to become so con- 
spicuous as to be an object of general attack. We may justly 
infer from this, that exiles are on the whole men of exceptional 
and energetic natures, and it is especially from such men as these 
that new strains of race are likely to proceed. 

“The influence of man upon the nature of his own race has 
already been very large, but it has not been intelligently directed, 
and has in many instances done great harm. Its action has been 
by invasions and migration of races, by war and massacre, by 
wholesale deportation of population, by emigration, and by many 
social customs which have a silent but widespread effect. 

“There exists a sentiment, for the most part quite unreasonable, 
against the gradual extinction of an inferior race. It rests on 
some confusion between the race and the individual, as if the de- 
struction of a race was equivalent to the destruction of a large 
number of men. It is nothing of the kind when the process of 
extinction works silently and slowly through the earlier marriage 
of members of the superior race, through their greater vitality 
under equal stress, through their better chances of getting a liveli- 
hood, or through their prepotency in mixed marriages. That the 
members of an inferior class should dislike being elbowed out of 
the way is another matter; but it may be somewhat brutally ar- 
gued that whenever two individuals struggle for a single place, 
one must yield, and that there will be no more unhappiness on the 
whole, if the inferior yield to the superior than conversely, 
whereas the world will be permanently enriched by the success of 
the superior.” °3 


But the eugenics solution does not appear easy to biologists. 
Mr. Spiller speaks of it as “the eminently plausible but almost 


certainly unscientific doctrine.” ** And Professor Conklin writes: 
EE aa 

“The eugenical dream of a single human breed in which every 
individual would be a superman would make a highly organised 
society impossible; it is an anti-social and wholly individualistic 
ideal. It would be possible theoretically, though perhaps not prac- 


Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, Everyman’s Library Edition, 
Sections on “Influence of Man upon Race” and “ Selection and Race,” 
pp. 199-201, ef. pp. 206, 218. 

* Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 58. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 305 


tically, to breed a race of men of greater intellectual ability than 
any the world has known, but if all people were of this highly in- 
tellectual type, who would dig coal and build railroads and work in 
factories or on farms? It is as undesirable that persons of marked 
intellectual capacity should be forced into mere routine tasks as 
that persons of small ability should be placed in great positions. 

“ But a great variety of human types is beneficial only if every 
individual is able to find the work and place in society for which 
he is best suited, and if those are eliminated from reproduction 
who are incapable of filling any useful place. Furthermore, the 
best biological and social results would be obtained if intermar- 
riage occurred only between individuals of similar hereditary 
types. Such a segregation is no impossible ideal, for it is what 
takes place naturally and normally where instinct and inclination 
are not interfered with by purely artificial restrictions and conven- 
tions. Even our oldest families are of such mixed lineage that 
their children vary greatly in intellectual capacity, and it is con- 
trary to instinct and to good breeding for a woman of talent to 
marry the stupid son of a distinguished family or for a man of 
genius to marry a shallow-minded heiress. It would be good for 
society in general and for its individual members in particular, if 
every person were free to find his or her proper level both in occu- 
pation and marriage, irrespective of family obscurity or pride.” * 


The eugenic principle is like the principle of segregation, true 
enough with its right limits and governed by the right spirit. 
As a process of deliberate breeding of race excellence it is 
impossible.** But as a principle of action to be wrought into the 


* Vale Review, April, 1917, Art. “Biology and National Welfare,” 
pp. 481 f. 


% “The biological fear proposes no remedy, except that the blondes must 
outbreed the brunettes or hold them under if they cannot outbreed them. 
If these are the remedies, then, of course, the great race is doomed. Un- 
fortunately, the families of ‘Great Race’ parentage are not being increased; 
a bad example, which, by the way, ‘the lesser breeds’ are following as soon 
as they achieve a certain status. The masses—long heads and broad heads 
—are ‘out of hand,’ and ‘all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can- 
not put “the old order” together again.’ 

“Against this unrelievable pessimism we must recover a challenging 
faith. Nature has not laid all her best eggs into Nordic baskets; civilisa- 
tion is not measured by the cephalic index alone; democracy is not degra- 
dation, and mongrelisation within limits is not doom. I believe in race 
because I believe in heredity, though the two are not necessarily identical. 
I believe in the fine strain of folks who came with their sublime faith to 
the rockbound coast of New England; but I do not believe that the cour- 


306 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


sense of race pride and effort it is a sound principle. Society has 
a right to demand a great deal more than it has been accustomed 
to demand, and public opinion ought to make marriage as difficult 
as possible for those who are not fit for it, and especially for those 
who have been unfitted by sin. But here again the problem is 
moral. So far as eugenics can make any contribution to race im- 
provement it will be due to higher moral ideals controlling the 
character and relationships of men.%* 

5. We come next to the difficult question of miscegenation or 
amalgamation in its relation to the problem of race. On two 
points the anthropologists appear to be agreed, namely, the facts 
as to the universal operation of race assimilation in the past and 
the probable development of the future. The really difficult 
question is as to the present. And as to the present, the fact of 
steadily progressing racial intermixture is unquestionable. The 
real issue is aS to what is wise and right and how can what is 
wise and right be secured. 

a. As to the past, Galton says that the past has left us with 
nothing but mongrel races. In his History of Rome, Prof. Frank 
writes of the amalgams which made up the Greek and Roman 
races, neither of which in its maximum power was a pure race. 
“ About 2,000 years B. c., various Indo-European tribes began to 
push their way across the Alpine ranges into the Mediterranean 
countries. ‘They were apparently a tall, well-built, fair-haired 
race, closely related to the ancestors of the modern Celts, Germans 
and Anglo-Saxons. In Greece, these migrants were called Hel- 
lenes, and became the basic element of the remarkable Greek 
people.” These Hellenes ‘“ mingled along the Aryan coast with 
the most cultured people then in existence.” Of Italy, he writes, 


age with which they faced the odds of the New England winters, the 
strength with which they drove the stakes of homestead, church and school 
into the new and reluctant soil, will pass from America when the last drop 
of New England blood blends with that of Celt, Latin, Slav or Semite.”— 
The Christian Century, Sept. 20, 1923, art. by Edward A, Steiner, “The 
Myth of a New Race.” 

*7“ Moreover, the ultimate fruits of any eugenic movement will, by the 


nature of the case, require many generations.”—Eugenical News, Aug, 
1923, p. 80. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE, RACE PROBLEM 307 


“This tall light race, though far from precocious and seldom 
the originator of a new culture, has nevertheless shown a marked 
capacity for analytical thought and for orderly government, as 
well as a distinct ability to assimilate and appreciate high artistic 
ideals. ‘Their capacities have to be sure been variously dulled or 
quickened by intermixture with other races. In Greece, for in- 
stance, they doubtless gained in artistic power and lost in political 
genius by freely mixing with the native A‘gean peoples. In Italy 
however, one may study them in their more normal development, 
since there the more thorough elimination of the native element 
seems to have kept the immigrant stock for a long time fairly 
pure.” *8 


In later Rome, there was an almost universal intermixture of 
blood. Prof. Frank concludes that perhaps ninety per cent. of 
the free plebeians in the streets of Rome in the time of Juvenal 
and Tacitus had Oriental blood in their veins, and he has com- 
piled equally remarkable statistics for various towns in Italy, Gaul 
and Spain. “It is evident,” he concludes, “ that the whole Empire 
was a melting pot and that the Oriental was always and every- 
where a large part of the ore.” °® Some lay the fall of Rome to 
this amalgamation. Others believe, as we have seen, that Rome 
got more than she gave and that the foreign elements saved her. 
What happened in Rome has been going on continuously through 
history. The specialisation of race has been undergoing a vast 
regeneralisation. As Professor Conklin says: 


“Eixisting races have arisen by mutation and hybridisation, but 
they have been established by the isolation of certain of these 
mutants or biotypes. ‘The present tendency to the breaking down 
of isolation and the commingling of races is a reversal of the pro- 
cesses by which those races were established. If in the past ‘God 
made of one blood all nations of men,’ it is certain that at present 
there is being made from all nations one blood. By the inter- 
breeding of various races and breeds there has come to be a com- 
plicated intermixture of racial characters in almost every human 
stock, and this process is going on today more rapidly and exten- 
sively than ever before. Strictly speaking, there are no ‘ pure’ 


», Frank, A History of Rome, p. 6 f 
® American Historical Review, Vol. XXI, (1916), p. 689 ff., quoted in 
Western Races and the World, p. 102. 


308 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


lines in any human group. If so-called ‘pure’ English, Irish, 
Scotch, Dutch, German, Russian, French, Spanish, or Italian lines 
are traced back only a few generations they are found to include 
many foreign strains, and this is especially true of American 
families, even those of ‘ purest’ blood.” 4° 


“If we assume,” says Ratzel, looking both forward and back-. 
ward, “ with the majority of anthropologists at the present day, a 
single origin for man, the reunion into one real whole of the parts 
which have diverged after the fashion of ‘sports,’ must be re- 
garded as the unconscious ultimate aim of these movements of 
mankind. This in the limited space of the habitable world, must 
lead to permeation, and as a consequence, to mingling, crossing, 
levelling. But again as a similar organisation has spread among 
men, the possibility has increased of migration to places the most 
remote from the original abode; and in the whole world, there is 
hardly a frontier left which has not been crossed.” “ A thousand 
examples show,” Ratzel adds, “ that in all this change and move- 
ment, the races cannot remain unaltered, and that even the most 
numerous, counting their hundreds of millions, cannot keep their 
footing in the tumult that surges around them. Inter-breeding is 
making rapid strides in all parts of the earth.” ** 

b. As to the future. Here again the anthropologists agree. 
Professor Conklin, of Princeton, says: 


“Even if we are horrified by the thought, we cannot hide the 
fact that all present signs point to an intimate commingling of all 
existing human types within the next five or ten thousand years 
at most. Unless we can re-establish geographical isolation of 
races, we cannot prevent their interbreeding. By rigid laws ex- 
cluding immigrants of other races, such as they have at present in 
New Zealand and Australia, it may be possible for a time to main- 
tain the purity of the white race in certain countries, but with the 


© The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 47. 

“ The History of Mankind, Vol. I, pp. "0, 12. See Galton! Inquiries into 
Human Faculty, Influence of Man upon Race; Roemer, Origin of the 
English People and of the English Language, pp. 85, 197 ft; Zi2¢ePane 
History of English Literature, p. 71; Dixon, The Racial History of Man, 
p. 516; Atlantic Monthiy, June, 1920, art. ‘The Future of Central Europe,” 
p. 834 f., as to the disappearance of racial marks. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 309 


constantly increasing intercommunications between all lands and 
peoples such artificial barriers will probably prove as ineffectual 
in the long run as the Great Wall of China. The races of the 
world are not drawing apart but together, and it needs only the 
vision that will look ahead a few thousand years to see the blend- 
ing of all racial currents into a common stream.” *” 


And Professor Dixon, of Harvard, thinks that the Negroid peo- 
ples will hold the tropical heart of Africa, “ but for the rest of the 
world, if the theory here proposed be true, that the racial history 
of man is in final analysis that of the struggles for dominance 
among the descendants of differently dowered types, together with 
their gradual blending into an ever more homogeneous form, the 
answer to the riddle of the future would seem to be written in the 
past. The more primitive types and races, those least endowed, 
must tend to pass from the stage and merge into the complex of 
their victors, and among these amalgamation and absorption must 
continue to reduce more and more the remnants of the original 
types, until in the end, out of many types, through a multitude of 
races, may come one race, which will be the consummation of 
them all.” +8 

This is the biological prophesy. We believe that there is a bet- 
ter solution of the race problem than this, that there is a richer 
destiny possible for man than, to use Professor Reinsch’s phrase, 
“engulfment in an indiscriminate mass,” a common amalgam of 
all human blood. 

c. As to the present the statements already made indicate how 
deeply the forces of inter-racial amalgamation are operating. In 
Siam and the Malay Peninsula, Chinese blood is pouring in a 
steady flood into the already composite population. The whole of 
Latin America, as we shall see, is a gigantic experiment in racial 
intermingling. In India the population is made up of “races as 
fundamentally differing from each other as any in Europe,” ** but 
ever more and more melting together. The number of Anglo- 
Indians or mixed English and Indian blood, reported in the Census 


“The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 52. 
*8 The Racial History of Man, p. 523. 
“General Report, Census of India, 1881, p. 8. 


310 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


of 1911 was 15% more than in 1901, while the total population 
increased 7%. In the census of 1921 the Anglo-Indian increase 
during the decade was 12.6%, while the total population increased 
1.2%. ‘The most startling evidence of racial intermixture is in the 
United States. “ There are now one-quarter as many mulattoes as 
full-blooded Negroes in the United States, and the former are in- 
creasing at twice the rate of the latter.”*° The census of 1920, 
however, raises some perplexing questions. The following table 
shows the growth of the mixed population and the comparative 
growth before and since the abolition of slavery. 


Per cent of Total 


2 N 
Year Total Black Mulatto | Black haters, 


Census Negro Population 








1920 |10,463,131)| 8,802,577 | 1,660,554 | 84.1 15.9 
1910 9,827,763) 7,777,077 | 2,050,686 | 79.1 20.9 
1890 7,488,676) 6,337,980 | 1,132,060} 84.8 15.2 
1870 4,880,009; 4,295,960 | 584,049); 88.0 12.0 
1860 4,441,830) 3,853,467 | 588,363 | 86.8 13.2 
1850 3,638,808} 3,233,057 | 405,751; 88.8 11.2 





Between 1890 and 1910 the pure black population increased 31% 
and the population of mixed “ white blood” and “ black blood ” 
increased 81%. Between 1910 and 1920 the pure black population 
increased 13% and the population of mulattoes, of mixed “ white 
blood” and “black blood” decreased 24%. It is obvious that 
these figures are impossible. There cannot have been such a de- 
crease in the number of mulattoes. Either the number of mulat- 
toes reported in 1910 was too great or the number in 1920 was too 
small. As a matter of fact the Census Returns show that the 
number of mulattoes nearly doubled between 1870 and 1890. The 
same rate of increase between 1890 and 1910 would justify the 
figures of the 1910 Census. A corresponding increase between 
1910 and 1920 would suggest a present mulatto population of 


“The Yale Review, April, 1917, p. 479. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 811 


nearly 3,000,000, which would be almost double the actual returns 
and which would require the conclusion that the pure black popu- 
lation had not increased at all. What explanation can there be of 
such confusion? The explanation of the Census authorities is 
as follows: 


“ According to the census returns, the proportion of mulattoes 
in the Negro population increased from 12 per cent. to 15.2 per 
cent. during the 20 year period from 1870 and continued to in- 
crease to 20.9 per cent. during the following 20 year pertod, but 
decreased to 15.9 per cent. during the 10 year period from I9IO 
to 1920. ‘Thus on the face of the returns the proportion of 
mulattoes in 1920, although nearly one-fourth smaller than in 
1910, was nevertheless slightly larger than that in 1890. (See 
Table 9.) 

“Tt is likely that the explanation of the relatively large propor- 
tion of mulattoes shown for 1910 may be found in part in the 
fact that a larger proportion of the Negro population was can- 
vassed by Negro enumerators in that year than in any other 
census year. It is probable that the practice of returning as black 
those mulattoes who had but a small admixture of white blood 
was greater among the white than among the Negro enumerators. 
Moreover, the Negro enumerators may have taken somewhat 
greater care than did the white enumerators to ascertain whether 
Negroes whom they were not able to interview personally were 
blacks or mulattoes. The difference between the proportions of 
mulatto in 1920 and in 1910, as shown by the returns, cannot, 
however, be accounted for as resulting wholly or mainly from 
these causes. 

“In order to ascertain the probable effect of the employment 
of Negro enumerators in 1910 upon the proportion of the Negro 
population returned as mulattoes in that year as compared with 
1920, a special tabulation was made for the 16 Southern states 
and the District of Columbia and for 10 Northern states—Massa- 
chusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, 
Indiana, Lilinois, Missouri and Kansas—in all of which a part of 
the Negro population was canvassed by Negro enumerators in 
1910. The total Negro population of the area covered was 10,- 
303,399 in 1920 and 9,714,770 in 1910, or between 98 and 99 per 
cent. of the total Negro population of the United States in each 
year. The number of enumeration districts in this area in which 
Negro enumerators were employed in 1910 was 2,055. This spe- 
cial tabulation brought out the following facts: 


312 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“Considering as one group those counties in each of which 
three or more Negro enumerators were employed in 1910, the per- 
centage mulatto in the Negro population decreased from 21.8 in 
that year to 16.1 in 1920; considering as another group those 
counties in each of which one or two Negro enumerators were 
employed, the percentage mulatto decreased from 21. to 14.2; and 
considering as a third group those counties in which white enum- 
erators only were employed, the percentage decreased from 19.6 
to 15.9. Thus the decrease in the counties in which white enum- 
erators only were employed in 1910 was nearly two-thirds as great 
as the decrease in those counties in each of which three or more 
Negro enumerators were employed in that year. 

“ Moreover, in every one of the 26 states covered by the com- 
parison a decrease in the percentage mulatto between 1910 and 
1920 is shown for the group of counties in which white enumer- 
ators only were employed in 1910, and in a number of cases this 
decrease was equal to or greater than that for the groups of coun- 
ties in which Negro enumerators were employed in 1910. 

“It appears, therefore, that the employment of Negro enum- 
erators in certain counties in 1910 and of white enumerators only 
in 1920 had some effect in reducing the proportion of mulattoes 
in the Negro population, as shown by the returns for 1920 in com- 
parison with those for 1910, but that this was not the sole nor 
principal cause of the indicated decrease.” *° 


What was the cause? Or was there really a decrease? It 
would be very desirable to know the facts. Judge Winston holds 
that prior to 1876 racial amalgamation was common; “ there was 
no public sentiment on the subject, neither was there race con- 
sciousness nor conflict.” 47 And yet the number of mulattoes ac- 
cording to the census increased 45% between 1850 and 1860 and 
decreased slightly between 1860 and 1870, but leaped upward 
93.8% between 1870 and 1890 and 81% between 1890 and 1910. 
There is something unexplained in these figures. 

Is this mixture of all races good or evil? Some say good. 
Some, good within limits. And some have a different answer. 

(1) Some say good. Man is one species and race intermarriage 
is not an attempt at hybridisation of different species. The fertil- 


“Fourteenth Census Reports, Vol. II, Chap. I, p. 17, “Colour or Race, 
Nativity, and Parentage.” 
“Current History, Sept., 1923, p. 948. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 3138 


ity of human cross breeding, it is argued, is its biological justifica- 
tion. Professor Finch argues that “race blending, especially in 
the rare instances when it occurs under favourable circumstances, 
produces a type superior in fertility, vitality, and cultural worth 
to one or both of the parent stocks. . . . While race blending is 
not everywhere desirable, yet the crossing of distinct races, es- 
pecially when it occurs with social sanction, often produces a 
superior type; certainly such crossing as has occurred tends to 
prove absurd the conclusion that the dilution of the blood of the 
so-called higher races by that of the so-called lower races will 
either set the species on the highway to extinction or cause a re- 
lapse into barbarism.” #8 And he quotes G. Stanley Hall: 


“The Ainos of Japan, who are vanishing by amalgamation, are 
a very different and more primitive type than the Japanese, and 
both appear to be benefited by the process of absorption. The 
Portuguese and the Dutch have been intermarrying for several 
centuries in farther India to the advantage of both races, as is true 
of the Russians with the older natives of Siberia. The mixture 
of Arabs with the North Africans has produced the Moors; many 
crossings of the Turks, the mixture of the Spaniards and Indians 
in South America and Mexico, especially in Chile, which have 
resulted in Neo-Indian and Neo-Aryan types, show how favour- 
ably the crossing of races may act if differences are not great and 
if both sexes of both races marry with each other instead of only 
the men of one with the women of the other.” *° 


Wu Ting Fang also spoke a word in behalf of intermarriage, with 
a characteristic touch: 


“With regard to the question of inter-racial marriage, in my 
opinion the principle is excellent, though I fear it is not easy to 
carry out. Broadly speaking, it is proper that Occidentals and 
Orientals should intermarry, as this would be the best means of 
diffusing knowledge and creating ties of relationship and friend- 
ship. But some of our customs, habits, and modes of living, 
though excellent in themselves, are different from those of West- 
ern countries, and may not be agreeable to Occidental people. 


*® Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper on “The Effects of Racial 
Miscegenation,” pp. 108, 112. 
 Tbid., p. 111, from Hall, Adolescence, Vol. II, p. 722 f. 


314 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Within the last few years the people of China, especially those on 
the Coast, have been adopting some of the Western habits and 
ways of living. It is not impossible that these persons will make 
good partners for life with Westerners; in fact, there are cases of 
mixed marriages which have turned out to be happy. I am in- 
clined to the opinion that when a nation has a large number of its 
people who marry with foreigners, it is a sign of progress. It has 
been proved that children inherit the traits of their parents, and, 
as the Chinese are noted for their patience, perseverance, honesty, 
and industry, these characters will naturally be imparted to the 
Eurasian children, who will have the good points from both 
Sides 


Permanent racial dominion of any race would seem to be de- 
pendent upon its amalgamation with the races it is to rule. It 
purchases power at the price of its blood.®* But this is not always 
a loss. Indeed this was the way many societies or races were 
formed. “The mixture of races,” says Bagehot, “was often an 
advantage, too. Much as the old world believed in pure blood, it 
had very little of it. Most historic nations conquered prehistoric 
nations, and though they massacred many, they did not massacre 
all. They enslaved the subject men, and then married the subject 
women. . . . What sorts of unions improve the breed, and 
which are worse than both the father-race and the mother, it is 
not very easy to say.” °? And he quotes M. Quatrefages as hold- 
ing “that the mixture of race sometimes brings out a form of 
character better suited than either parent form to the place and 
time; that in such cases, by a kind of natural selection, it domi- 
nates over both parents, and perhaps supplants both, whereas in 
other cases the mixed race is not as good then and there as other 
parent forms, and then it passes away soon and of itself.” °3 And 
Bagehot concludes, “ In the early world many mixtures must have 
wrought many ruins; they must have destroyed what they could 
not replace—an inbred principle of discipline and of order. But 
if these unions of races did not work thus; if, for example, the 


 Ibid., p. 128 f. 

"Lyall, Asiatic Studies, Second Series, pp. 364 f., 368 f. 
° Physics and Politics, p. 68 f. 

 Tbid., p. 69. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 315 


two races were so near akin that their morals united as well as 
their breeds, if one race by its great numbers and prepotent or- 
ganisation so presided over the other as to take it up and assimi- 
late it, and leave no separate remains of it, then the admixture was 
invaluable.” °4 

And Professor Conklin, while disapproving indiscriminate 
amalgamation, indulges the thought of an imagined composite race 
combining all the good of all the races: 


“No race has a monopoly of good or bad qualities ; all that can 
be said is that certain traits are more frequently found in one race 
than in another. 

“In love of adventure, of discovery, and of freedom within the 
limits of social order the white race is probably supreme, and these 
qualities under favourable environment have led to its great 
scientific, industrial, and political development. In virility, con- 
servatism, and reverence for social obligations the yellow race, as 
a whole, is probably superior to the white. If the white race wor- 
ships liberty, the yellow race deifies duty; if the former is socially 
centrifugal, the latter is centripetal. The brown, red, and black 
races each have their characteristic virtues and defects which have 
become proverbial. Every race has contributed something of 
value to civilisation, though there can be no doubt that the white, 
yellow, and brown races lead, and probably in the order named. 

“No doubt if all the good. qualities of different races could be 
combined and all of the bad qualities eliminated the result would 
be a type greatly superior to any existing race.” °° 


(2) Some say amalgamation is good within limits, 2. e., between 
kindred races or between the best of two races even though not 
kindred. Dr. Jordan is prepared to make these limits pretty wide. 
“When European blood,” he writes, “ mingles with Asiatic strains 
as good, there is no evidence that the progeny is inferior to either 
parent stock. . . . In general, other things being equal, the ad- 
vantage seems to be on the side of the blended races which belong 
to the same general stock. Moreover, in civilised lands, there are 
only blended races.” °® An American physician living in India is 
disposed on the whole to favour amalgamation. He writes: 


i040. pei7 ls 
® The Direction of Human Evolution, p. 51. 
* Jordan, War and the Breed, p. 29 f. 


316 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“‘ Caste is a term which connotes social distinctions and differ- 
ences, differences in ‘ purity’ of blood and breed, heredity, etc. It 
indicates social organisation based on birth, 1. e., blood. Lower 
castes may marry upward, and thus bring about improvement of 
breed, but not vice versa. Marriage downward seems in some re- 
spects to cause a deterioration, the resultant being ‘inferior.’ It 
seems certain that caste is based on differences in race. For ex- 
ample, among Hindus, the Brahmins are of pure Aryan race and 
fair complexion. The Kshatriyas are somewhat mixed, the Vaish- 
navas more so, and the Sudras are of aboriginal origin and black 
in complexion. (I think Sudra means black.) In America, the 
‘coloured’ people form a different caste. So do the Jews. Bio- 
logically speaking, I think there is no inherent objection to inter- 
racial and inter-caste marriages. In many cases the results seem 
happy and suitable. For example, in India my observation is that 
inter-marriages between Europeans and Indians in many cases 
give good results, and would be advantageous to India if they took 
place between equal classes and religions, and in large numbers so 
as to exert a decided influence. ‘The Eurasians (or Anglo- 
Indians) may be ‘inferior’ in some qualities, but in some fine 
qualities they may be ‘ superior’ to the European. In present con- 
ditions (rather abnormal) the children of Anglo-Indian mixed 
marriages are doubtless in an unfortunate position, but I speak 
above of ideal or theoretical conditions.” 


Within the broad colour distinctions, those who hold this view, 
would approve of wisely ordered assimilation. ‘They recognise 
the fact of inextricable mixture already existing and, while some 
of them deprecate the disappearance of specialised types, like the 
long-headed, fair-haired, blue-eyed north European, they assent 
to the inevitability of white amalgamation and would assent to 
similar amalgamation of the other colours. As to marriage be- 
tween the best individuals of two diverse races, there would be 
greater difference of view.°’ We shall come to a judgment of our 
own in a moment. 


7“ Probably, and I should say more than probably, where nature herself 
obliterates the distinction of race, and allows a mighty and permanent 
affection between man and woman to cross the limits of race, then, I should 
be inclined to say nature herself gives sanction which may set the lesser 
utilities at defiance and consecrates the union of distinct breeds; but with- 
out so mighty a permit it is perhaps well that we who are but children in 
this matter, and cannot see farther than our hands can reach, should pause 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 317 


(3) But others deem the intermarriage solution of the race 
problem the wrong solution. The Capper Marriage-Divorce bill 
which was before Congress in the spring of 1923, entirely pro- 
hibited marriages between feeble-minded persons, between Whites 
and Mongolians, and between Whites and Negroes. It was re- 
ported that Senator Capper had agreed to remove these last clauses 
in response to protests.°° This solution cannot, however, be 
condemned off hand on the ground that the result of intermarriage 
between the races will be a product inferior to each race. For 
two reasons, (a) Amalgamation often takes place under the worst 
conditions instead of under the best, on the fringes where too 
often the weakest and most lawless elements of both races bring 
together the inferior and uncontrolled qualities of each. Usually 
it is the men of the supposedly stronger and superior race who 
take the women of the other race, sometimes in lawful marriage, 
more often in concubinage or in even more indiscriminate rela- 
tions. And often the laws force upon even legalised marriage and 
its offspring a degrading status. In South Africa such persons 
“are outside the pale of tribal influences; they are not brought 
within the white community. Yet, as a rule, they are monoga- 
mists, and conform their lives to civilised usages, and their as- 
pirations, notwithstanding many drawbacks, are impressively 
towards the legal position of their “white father,’ objecting to 
being thrust down to the level of their ‘black mother’; they do 
not receive the status which, having regard to their culture, they 
might fairly claim.” °® If the best of two races were joined on 
the highest and worthiest basis the test would be fair, as the il- 
legitimate mixture along a low boundary line can never be. (b) 
But even such amalgamations as we have are not to be lightly set 
down as failures. The Chinese blood is improving the stock of 
all south-eastern A’sia. It is a popular misapprehension that 
hybrids are always inferior to pure breeds or that they resemble 


and move with caution. For the future of the race on earth is bound up in 
ae matter.’—Olive Schreiner, Some Thoughts on South Africa, pp. 
385-386. 

The World Tomorrow, March, 1923, p. 88f.; New York Times, Jan. 
24, 1923. 

° The South African Natives, p. 127. 


318 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the inferior parent. “As a matter of fact it is well known that 
while some hybrids are inferior to either parent, others are su- 
perior. . . . Combinations of the best qualities yield only the 
best types, combinations of the worst characters yield the worst 
types; and between these two extremes all combinations of good 
and bad characters occur.” ® A man like Booker Washington 
was a far better and greater man than the white man who was 
his father. 

(4) But when all has been said that can be said for amalgama- 
tion, some things remain to be noted as weighing against it as a 
solution of the race question. 

(a) It cannot be operated on a scale sufficiently great or speedy 
to solve the race issue. It would be generations, probably centu- 
ries, perhaps millenniums, before amalgamation could erase the 
lines of race. Meanwhile the friction and prejudice and mal- 
relationship which constitute the problem would remain. They 
might be mollified by the acceptance of the principle of race- 
equalitarianism which the policy of universal miscegenation would 
imply, but on the other hand any such alleviations would be offset 
by the certainty of increased friction between the growing hybrid 
groups and the pure blood groups from which they were com- 
posed. Experience shows that this is the case and that the only 
method of avoiding it in any measure is by the incorporation of 
the hybrid group in one of the other two, and inevitably in the 
supposedly lower race. In South Africa the illegitimate son of a 
native woman by a European father is in law a native.6t This 
has been the course pursued in the United States. The race of 
mixed white and black parentage has been absorbed in the black © 
race. \In India the Anglo-Indian or Eurasian community has had 
a separate status but has steadfastly striven for recognition in the 
white race. This has led to increased race friction. The new 
political situation in India is compelling the Anglo-Indian to re- 
consider this position and their wisest leaders are advocating 
their throwing in their lot politically as they must and socially as 


© The Yale Review, April, 1917, p. 480. 
“The South African Natives, p. 128. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 319 


they ought, with the Hindu people.®* Racial amalgamation within 
limits will no doubt proceed and of course it must proceed, as the 
white blood already in the Negro race will spread more and more 
and as the Chinese blood will spread in all eastern continental 
Asia. But the dimensions and acuteness of the race problem will 
not be diminished and may even be aggravated. 

(b) Amalgamation, as has been suggested, imperils race per- 
sonality and autonomy and self-development.® If a race has ful- 
filled its mission and needs no further opportunity to work out 
its destiny and its distinctive contribution to humankind, perhaps 
it might as well melt into some other race or some new amalgam, 
but this would be racial euthanasia, not the protection and use of 
racial freedom and activity. There is no evidence that any of the 
great races has accomplished its mission. Until it has done so, 
even though amalgamation may filter in along its margins, it is 
better that its essential race integrity be preserved. Marcus 
Garvey’s power, as President of the Universal Negro Improve- 
ment Association, with its project of an independent African re- 
public, lay in his appeal to the sense of Negro race personality. 
» Wel believe,” said he, “in, a pure black race just as, all’ self- 
respecting Whites believe in a pure White race as far as that can 
be.” °* In an article on the Negroes who were opposed to Garvey 
as “The Negro’s Greatest Enemy,’ Garvey complained of the 
antagonism to him on the part of Negroes who had white blood: 


“T was a black man and therefore had absolutely no right to 
lead ; in the opinion of the ‘coloured’ element, leadership should 
have been in the hands of a yellow or a very light man. On such 
flimsy prejudices our race has been retarded. ‘There is more bit- 
terness among us Negroes because of the caste of colour than there 
is between any other peoples, not excluding the people of India. 
‘ Being black, I have committed an unpardonable offense 
against the very light coloured Negroes in America and the West 


® Allahabad, Pioneer, May 14, 1923, art. “Future of Anglo-Indians.” 
There are some writers who charge the mulattoes in the United States with 
responsibility as the “ prime cause of social friction.” See Current History, 
March, 1924, pp. 1065-1070, art. “The Mulatto—Crux of the Negro 
Problem.” 

*® Oldham, The World and the Gospel, p. 189; Murphy, The Basis of 
Ascendancy, pp. 51-69. 

“Century Magazine, Feb., 1923. 


320 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Indies by making myself famous as a Negro leader of millions. 
In their view, no black man must rise above them, but I still forge 
ahead determined to give to the world the truth about the new 
Negro who is determined to make and hold for himself a place in 
the affairs of men. The Universal Negro Improvement Associ- 
ation has been misrepresented by my enemies. ‘They have tried to 
make it appear that we are hostile to other races. This is abso- 
lutely false. We love all humanity. We are working for the 
peace of the world which we believe can only come about when 
all races are given their due. 

“We feel that there is absolutely no reason why there should be 
any differences between the black and white races, if each stops to 
adjust and steady itself. We believe in the purity of both races. 
We do not believe the black man should be encouraged in the idea 
that his highest purpose in life is to marry a white woman, but we 
do believe that the white man should be taught to respect the black 
woman in the same way that he wants the black man to respect the 
white woman. It is a vicious and dangerous doctrine of social 
equality to urge, as certain coloured leaders do, that black and 
white should get together, for that would destroy the racial purity 
of both.” © 


6é 


“Race assimilation,” says a recent sensible writer on India, “is 
desired neither by the Indian nor by the British.” ° 

(c) Amalgamation, which is sometimes urged on the principle 
of race equality, is in reality the subversion of race equality. Men 
of a stronger race treat women of a weaker race as they could not 
treat women of their own. Some Indian writers are inclined to 
look back regretfully to the early days when Englishmen under 
the East India Company kept their establishments as a matter of 
course and left behind them troops of half-breed children. There 
was once a furious dispute in Calcutta as to whether these children 
and their mothers were not a legitimate charge against the Civil 
Fund of the Company.®’ And some modern writers imagine that 


® Current History, Sept., 1923, art. by Marcus Garvey, “The Negro’s 
Greatest Enemy,” pp. 954, 956. 

° The Yale Review, April, 1924, art. by Philo M. Buck, Jr., “ What India 
Woants:? 'p. 515, | 

* Marshman, Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward, Vol. I, 
pp. 202 ff. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 32] 


these old conditions represented a recognition by the British of 
race equality and understanding.®* Precisely the contrary. They 
were an expression of intolerable race inequality. And even when 
the amalgamation is legitimate it would certainly imperil race 
equality if it were on a sufficient scale. It would deprive each 
race of the conditions requisite to its full freedom and self- 
expression. No argument is offered here against amalgamation 
on the ground of race inequality. And the disapproval of inter- 
racial marriage does not imply our surrender of the ideals which 
this little book has maintained. We view the matter just as we 
view marriage within any one race.® All the considerations 
which counsel good sense, the conservation of moral and physical 
values, the union of harmonious strains, consideration for off- 
spring, and the rational application of eugenic principles in 
marriages within a race operate as presumptive objections to 
inter-race amalgamation. 

(d) To amalgamate races is to reverse the process of differ- 
entiation. There come times when new syntheses are desirable 
and certainly a new spiritual synthesis of the races is essential, 
but the progress of nature and of mankind has been a process of 
enlarging heterogeneity. Amalgamation turns this process back- 
ward. All the great gains of humanity have been painfully won 
by the specialised experience and sacrifice and achievement of the 
races. We cannot'see that this work is yet finished. ‘The races 
appear still to be necessary to accomplish the tasks for which they 
came into being. 


® Nundy, Political Problems, p. 102. See Mrs. Burton, Life of Sir Rich- 
ard Burton, Vol. I, pp. 109, 135 f., setting forth the advantages and disad- 
vantages of the system of Indian mistresses for British officials: “ At last 
the Bubt (1. e., the native mistress) made her exit and left a void. The 
greatest danger in British India is the ever growing gulf that yawns 
between the governors and the governed; they lose touch of one another, 
and such racial estrangement leads directly to racial hostility.” Any ac- 
count like Burton’s of life in India before the Indian Mutiny is enough to 
explain the existence of race antipathy on the part of the Indian people. 


® A newspaper despatch from Nobleville, Indiana, in March, 1923, re- 
ported that a coloured woman had filed suit for divorce against her hus- 
band on the ground that he had represented himself as a coloured man in 
marrying her but had subsequently filed in court a petition for recognition 
as white and of white parentage—New York Times, March 19, 1923. 


822 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Three of the instances of racial amalgamation with which we 
are familiar have some special lessons for us. 

(1) The Eurasian peoples in Asia. We know them best in the 
Anglo-Indian community, as it is now called rather than Eurasian, 
in India. Mr. Andrews calls them “a warm-hearted and emo- 
tional people, with high qualities of character when properly 
developed but apt very quickly to degenerate when left without 
proper care and training.” A friend has sent us from India the 
following report of an interview with the President of the Anglo- 
Indian Society: 


“(1) While in America the mulatto was repudiated by white 
society and became a leader in Negro society, in India the Euras- 
ian was repudiated by Indian society (due, no doubt, to the caste 
system) and became the bottom of European society, adopting 
the European civilisation, manners, customs, religion and lan- 
guage, but not accepted among Europeans. This is an interesting 
contrast, and the lot of the mulatto has in the past been much 
to be preferred. 

“(2) In my early years in India I came in contact with, and 
was shocked by, the intense dislike of the English by the Eurasian. 
I thought within myself, ‘These people owe all they have to the 
English. They and their children would have no chance in India 
in the midst of the teeming Hindu and Mohammedan population 
but for the position the British Raj gives them. How ungrateful 
and foolish of them to hate the British.’ I had not learned that 
help and favours given as by a superior to an inferior, even though 
accepted because needed, create not gratitude, but usually bitter 
resentment. This was the fact. The experience of Jean Valjean 
with the poor family in Paris he befriended and gave money to, is 
an illustration. 

“(3) The Anglo-Indian community has always feared the com- 
petition of Hindu as the Californian labourer fears that of the 
Chinaman—only the one has had to accept it, the other could 
check it. 

“(4) Now the Anglo-Indian sees the fact clearing before his 
vision that the British are foreigners and cannot be always in 
power in India, that the permanent factor is the Indian. To try to 
be like the bat in the fable that wished to be bird at one time and 
animal at another, must bring disaster. Hence we must decide 


” Andrews, The Renaissance in India, p. 285. 








THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 323 


what we are. And our only hope lies in taking our place squarely 
as Indians. 

“Taking this line the Anglo-Indians of India will get full recog- 
nition in India and I believe will be treated fairly.” 


And the American who sent this spoke of his own love of India, 
where he had been born and spent his life, and yet of the sense of 
race difference which new movements made only the sharper, not 
on his side, but on the side of the Indians: 


“T have had many Indian friends, Hindus, Mohammedans and 
Christians and I confess to having often felt a pang when I saw 
how different, however friendly, their attitude towards me was 
from their attitude towards each other. I work along with and 
see and talk with Indians only, from week’s end to week’s end. 
I think I draw as close as any to the Indian in sympathy and 
thought and mutual regard, and yet I feel at every turn that I am 
a foreigner. It makes one hungry for his own people. You will 
remember Lafcadio Hearn’s experience, even marrying a Japanese 
lady in order to really be one with the Japanese, and how bitterly 
disappointed he was—he found it could not be, they did not 
accept him. 

“The early English in India got closer to the Indians than we 
do now—they seldom went ‘ home,’ they got little home news, they 
smoked the huqqa, even their English wives did; many married 
Indian and Eurasian women. They did not become one with the 
people even then, but the nearer they came to getting rid of race 
distinctions the lower they sank in the scale of life—and the lower 
they sank the less were they of help or service to the Indian.” 


The mention of Lafcadio Hearn is relevant. He married a Jap- 
anese wife and sought to bridge the gulf between the races and to 
interpret Japan to the world. The result was perhaps as happy as 
it could be, but it was not a vindication of the proposal to solve 
the race problem by amalgamation. And Hearn seems to have 
felt keenly the problem of such race union in the life of the child. 
Writing of his little son he said, “ The spirit of him is altogether 
too gentle, a being entirely innocent of evil—what chance for him 
in such a world as Japan! Do you know that terribly pathetic 
poem of Robert Bridges, ‘ Pater Filio’? 


324 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“¢« Sense with keenest edge unused 
Yet unsteel’d by scathing fire 
Lovely feet as yet unbruised 
On the ways of dark desire 
Sweetest hope that lookest smiling 
O’er the wilderness defiling! 


““* Why such beauty to be blighted 
By the swarms of foul destruction? 
Why such innocence delighted 
When sin stalks to thy seduction? 
All the litanies e’er chanted 
Shall not keep thy faith undaunted.’ ”’ 


It may be truthfully said that this refers to any pure child life 
launched anywhere into the world, and that it is not a distinctive 
picture of Eurasian childhood, but far otherwise. Nevertheless 
the plight of the children of interracial marriage is one of the 
greatest difficulties in the way of accepting amalgamation as the 
solution of race. All over the world we see these children and 
only a heart of stone would be insensible to their plight. Often 
the white fathers have gone back to the home land and the little 
ones are left to work out their colossal problem themselves. 
Nothing more clearly proves that race honour and colour antip- 
athy are secondary forces than the readiness with which the white 
race has strewn the world with half breeds. And where white 
men have gone and lived in honour and purity, it has been moral 
forces rather than race pride or colour prejudice which have gov- 
erned them.“ Possibly the sacrifice of some generations of chil- 
dren and of adult life might be the necessary price of the solution 
of amalgamation, and possibly there might not need to be any such 
price if the world were agreed that amalgamation is the wise and 
right solution. In that case a special respect might attach to those 
who were courageously carrying it through. But as the world is, 
amalgamation imposes a terrible burden on its offspring in many 
lands. There are “450,000 coloured or Euro-Africans in South 


"The East and the West, Oct., 1922, art. “Coloured Races in South 
Africa,” pp. 330-337. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 325 


Africa, 100,000 of them in Johannesburg. Five of these hybrid 
people to every five whites. Their position is hard. They resent 
being called ‘natives’ and are not received on equality with 
whites. The native women have suffered harshly at the hands of 
white men—mostly Dutch, who keep native women openly on 
their farms as concubines.” 7 

(2) South America. South America is an illustration of amal- 
gamation on a continental scale.“* This was the deliberate policy 
and ideal of some of the great liberators and leaders. ‘‘ We shall 
not see nor the generation following us,” wrote Bolivar in 1822, 
“the triumph of the America we are founding: I regard America 
as in the chrysalis. There will be a metamorphosis in the physical 
life of its inhabitants; there will finally be a new caste, of all the 
races, which will result in the homogeneity of the people.” ™ 
There are still distinct racial divisions in South America, but the 
mixture of Portuguese and Indian and Negro in Brazil, of Span- 
ish and Indian and Negro in the Caribbean lands, of Spanish and 
Italian and Indian in Argentina and of Spanish and Indian in the 
rest of the Continent has gone further than any mixture of such 
dissimilar races has gone elsewhere. One-third of the population 
of the continent is estimated to be of pure white or dominant white 
blood, one-tenth of Indian blood and all the rest of mixed blood. 

Has the result justified the policy of amalgamation? In his 
later years, Bolivar gave up hope. In a letter to General Flores, 
of Ecuador, shortly before his death, he wrote: “I have been in 
power for nearly twenty years; from this experience I have gath- 
ered only a few definite results: 


(1) America for us is ungovernable. 
(2) He who dedicates his services to a revolution plows the sea. 
(3) The only thing that can be done in America is to emigrate. 


% The Missionary Herald, Feb., 1923, art. “ Johannesburg, South Africa’s 
Melting Pot.” 

% One of the richest bodies of material on the race question in Latin 
America is the Report of the Panama Congress on Christian Work in Latin 
America, 1916. See references to race and racial problems in index, Vol. 


III, p. 545. 
* Calderon, Latin America, Its Rise and Progress, p. 74. 


326 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


(4) This country will inevitably fall into the hands of the un- 
bridled rabble, and little by little become a prey to petty 
tyrants of all colours and races. 

(5) Devoured as we shall be by all possible crimes and ruined 
by our own ferociousness, Europeans will not deem it 
worth while to conquer us. 

(6) If it were possible for any part of the world to return to 
the state of primitive chaos, that would be the last stage 
of Spanish America.” 


Sr. Calderon sums up the facts and expresses his judgment: 


“In the Argentine, where Spanish, Russian, and Italian immi- 
grants intermingle, the social formation is extremely complicated. 
The aboriginal Indians have been united with African Negroes, 
and with Spanish and Portuguese Jews; then came Italians and 
Basques, French and Anglo-Saxons; a multiple invasion, with the 
Latin element prevailing. In Brazil, Germans and Africans 
marry Indians and Portuguese. Among the Pacific peoples, above 
all in Peru, a considerable Asiatic influx, Chinese and Japanese, 
still further complicates the human mixture. In Mexico and Bo- 
livia the native element, the Indian, prevails. ‘The Negroes form 
a very important portion of the population of Cuba and San Do- 
mingo. Costa Rica is a democracy of whites ; and in the Argentine, 
as in Chili, all vestiges of the African type have disappeared. In 
short, there are no pure races in America. The aboriginal Indian 
himself was the product of the admixture of ancient tribes and 
castes. 

“In the course of time historic races may form themselves; in 
the meantime, an indefinable admixture prevails. 

“This complication of castes, this admixture of divers bloods, 
has created many problems. For example, is the formation of a 
national consciousness possible with such disparate elements? 
Would such heterogeneous democracies be able to resist the in- 
vasion of superior races? Finally, is the South American half- 
caste absolutely incapable of organisation and culture? 

“Facile generalisations will not suffice to solve these questions. 

“The three races—lIberian, Indian and African—united by 
blood, form the population of South America. In the United 
States union with the aborigines is regarded by the colonist with 
repugnance; in the South miscegenation is a great national fact; 
it is universal. The Chilian oligarchy has kept aloof from the 
Araucanians, but even in that country unions between whites and 
Indians abound. Mestizos are the descendants of whites and 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 327 


Indians ; mulattoes the children of Spaniards and Negroes; zam- 
bos the sons of Negroes and Indians. Besides these there are a 
multitude of social sub-divisions. On the Pacific coast Chinese 
and Negroes have interbred. From the Caucasian white, bronzed 
by the tropics, to the pure negro, we find an infinite variety in the 
. cephalic index, in the colour of the skin, and in the stature. 

“Tt is always the Indian that prevails, and the Latin democra- 
cies are mestizo or indigenous. The ruling class has adopted the 
costume, the usages, and the laws of Europe, but the popu- 
lation which forms the national mass is Quechua, Aymara, or 
Aztec. | 

“One may say that the admixture of the prevailing strains with 
black blood has been disastrous for these democracies. : 

“The zambos have created nothing in America. On the other 
hand, the robust mestizo populations, the Mamelucos of Brazil, 
the Cholos of Peru and Bolivia, the Rotos of Chili, descendants 
of Spaniards and the Guarani Indians, are distinguished by their 
pride and virility. Instability, apathy, degeneration—all the signs 
of exhausted race—are encountered far more frequently in the 
mulatto than in the mestizo. 

“The European established in America becomes a creole; his is 
a new race, the final product of secular unions. He is neither 
Indian, nor black, nor Spaniard. The castes are confounded and 
have formed an American stock, in which we may distinguish the 
psychological traits of the Indian and the Negro, while the shades 
of skin and forms of skull reveal a remote intermixture. If all 
the races of the New World were finally to unite, the creole would 
be the real American. 

“ He is idle and brilliant. There is nothing excessive either in 
his ideals or his passions; all is mediocre, measured, harmonious. 
His fine and caustic irony chills his more exuberant enthusiasms ; 
he triumphs by means of laughter. He loves grace, verbal ele- 
gance, quibbles even, and artistic form; great passions or desires 
do not move him. In religion he is sceptical, indifferent, and in 
politics he disputes in the Byzantine manner. No one could dis- 
cover in him a trace of his Spanish forefather, stoical and 
adventurous. 

“But is unity possible with such numerous castes? Must we 
not wait for the work of many centuries before a clearly American 
population be formed?” ® 


Calderon’s own present conclusion is that the Latin American 


® Calderon, Latin America, Its Rise and Progress, pp. 311 f., 356 f., 359 f. 


328 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


democracies ‘are degenerate. The lower castes struggle success- 
fully against the traditional rules: the order which formerly 
existed is followed by moral anarchy ; solid conviction by a super- 
ficial scepticism, and the Castilian tenacity by indecision. The 
black race is doing its work and the continent is returning to its 
primitive barbarism. 

“This retrogression constitutes a very serious menace. In 
South America civilisation is dependent upon the numerical pre- 
dominance of the victorious Spaniard, on the triumph of the white 
man over the mulatto, the Negro, and the Indian. Only a plenti- 
ful European immigration can re-establish the shattered equilib- 
rium of the American races.” 7° 

Lord Bryce’s view of South American amalgamation was not 
so unfavourable, and he saw clearly the fallacy of the idea that 
race hostility is a primary instinct: 


“It might seem natural to assume a priom that men of pure 
European Race would continue to hold the foremost place in these 
countries, and would show both greater talents and a more humane 
temper than those in whose veins Indian blood flows. But I doubt 
if the facts support such a view. Some of the most forceful lead- 
ers who have figured in the politics of these republics have been 
mestizos. I remember one, as capable and energetic and upright 
a man as I met anywhere in the continent, who looked at least half 
an Indian, and very little of a Spaniard. Nor have there been any 
more sinister figures in the history of South America, since the 
days of Pedro de Arias the infamous governor of Darien who 
put to death Vasco Nunez de Balboa, than some who were pure 
Spaniards. . . . The Brazilian lower class intermarries with 
mulattoes and quadroons. Brazil is the one country in the world, 
besides the Portuguese colonies on the east and west coasts of 
Africa, in which a fusion of the European and African races is 
proceeding unchecked by law or custom. ‘The doctrines of human 
equality and human solidarity have here their perfect work. The 
result is so far satisfactory that there is little or no class fric- 
tion. The white man does not lynch or maltreat the Negro; in- 
deed, I have never heard of a lynching anywhere in South Amer- 
ica except occasionally as part of a political convulsion. The 
Negro is not accused of insolence and does not seem to develop 


™ Ibid., p. 262. See also Ross, South of Panama, pp. 213, 216, 248. 





THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 329 


any more criminality than naturally belongs to any ignorant popu- 
lation with loose notions of morality and property. 

“What ultimate effect the intermixture of blood will have on 
the European element in Brazil I will not venture to predict. If 
one may judge from a few remarkable cases, it will not necessarily 
reduce the intellectual standard. aah 


And Bryce concludes: 


“The fusion of two parent stocks, one more advanced, the other 
more backward, does not necessarily result in producing a race 
inferior to the stronger parent or superior to the weaker. : 

“The second conclusion is this: Conquest and control by a race 
of greater strength have upon some races a depressing and almost 
rinnousefrect, 24h) 

“Thirdly, the ease with which the Spaniards have intermingled 
by marriage with the Indian tribes—and the Portuguese have done 
the like, not only with the Indians, but with the more physically 
dissimilar Negroes—shows that race repugnance is no such con- 
stant and permanent factor in human affairs as members of the 
Teutonic peoples are apt to assume. Instead of being, as we 
Teutons suppose, the rule in this matter, we are rather the excep- 
tion, for in the ancient world there seems to have been little race 
repulsion; there is very little today among Mohammedans; there 
is none among Chinese. This seems to suggest that since the 
phenomenon is not of the essence of human nature, it may not be 
always as strong among the Teutonic peoples as it is today. Re- 
ligion has been in the past almost as powerful a dissevering force 
as has racial antagonism. In the case of Spaniards and Portu- 
guese, religion, so soon as the Indians had been baptised, made 
race differences seem insignificant.” * 

It would seem, accordingly, that we must allow longer time to 


the South American experiment before passing judgment. And 
there can be no doubt that if the experiment fails it will be not 
solely on ethnological grounds, but because the forces of true edu- 
cation and religion which ought to govern and direct so great a 
human development were not supplied by other races who under 
a just and generous principle of race relationships would have 
done their utmost to assure the success of a racial venture of such 
significance to all mankind. 


™ Bryce, South America, Observations and Impressions, pp. 477, 480, 
8 Ibid., p. 481 f. 


330 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


(3) The problem of white and black amalgamation. What 
makes this problem the more difficult is the apparent impossibility 
of its prevention. The white race has thus far been unwilling to 
accept any law of race integrity. It proclaims a principle of 
segregation which it persistently violates. Booker Washington 
once asked pertinently, “If your segregation wall be high enough 
to keep the black man in, will it be high enough to keep the white 
man out?” ‘Twenty-six states, more than half of them outside 
the South, have laws forbidding the marriage of white and black.” 
Such a law as established in the State of Illinois entered again and 
again into the debates between Lincoln and Douglas.®® In South 
Africa such marriages are prohibited in the Transvaal. “In the 
Free State the licenses issued to marriage officers do not permit 
of the celebration of mixed marriages. In the Cape Province and 
Natal such marriages can be contracted legally, though the tend- 
ency of recent legislation has been to place obstacles in the way of 
these unions.” *1 

This book has already stated the broad grounds on which it 
seems wise to deprecate amalgamation. The special view of the 
South on the question is stated with characteristic care and sym- 
pathy by Mr. E. G. Murphy. “The South,” he says, “does not 
base disapproval of intermarriage on an assertion of universal 
‘inferiority’ —for in that case every gifted or truly educated 
Negro might shake the structure of social usage. It bases its 
distinctions partly upon the far-reaching consideration that the 
racial stock of the two families of men is so unlike that nothing 
is to be gained and much is to be lost from the interblending of 
such divergent types; partly upon the broad consideration of 
practical expediency, in that the attempt to unite them actually 
brings unhappiness; partly upon the inevitable persistence of the 
odium of slavery; partly upon a complex, indefinable, but assertive 
social instinct.” The South in recognising the principle of race 
integrity, Mr. Murphy says, 


” Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, pp. 348-350; Mecklin, 
Democracy and Race Friction, p. 147 £. 

° Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 113, 446. 

* Temple, Native Races and Their Rulers, note to preface, p. iv. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 331 


“has done so, not in order to enforce a policy of degradation, 
but simply to express her own faith in a policy of separation. 
Her desire is not to condemn the Negro forever to a lower place, 
but to accord to him another place. She believes that where two 
great racial masses, so widely divergent in history and character, 
are involved in so much of local and industrial contact, a clear 
demarcation of racial life is in the interest of intelligent co- 
operation, and—in spite of occasional hardships—is upon the 
whole conservative of the happiness of both. During the opening 
of the great Southwest to private settlers there was an extended 
period of a quasi-collective ownership upon the unrestricted 
prairies. Men grazed their herds at will. There soon arose, how- 
ever, the confusion of boundaries and a consequent multiplicity of 
feuds. Then a number of the settlers, in order to define their lim- 
its, began to put up fences. Those who first did so were regarded 
as the intolerant enemies of peace. Soon, however, men began to 
see that peace 1s sometimes the result of intelligent divisions, that 
the attempt to maintain a collective policy through the confusion 
of individual rights had broken down; that clear lines, recognised 
and well defined, made mightily for good will; that the best 
friends were the men who had the best fences. And so there arose 
the saying, ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ ” ®? 


The objection to amalgamation does not rest on colour antip- 
athy or on race inequality, but upon the principle of race person- 
ality, integrity and mission. On this ground Du Bois rests the 
Negro’s best view. “I believe in Pride of race and lineage and 
self ; in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves ; 
in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man’s father; in pride 
of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor 
beg wedlock of the strong, knowing that men may be brothers in 
Christ, even though they be not brothers-in-law.” §° Illegitimate 
amalgamation is the repudiation of colour antipathy, but also of 
race equality and integrity. Legalised amalgamation would recog- 
nise race equality. Ejither legitimate amalgamation should be 
allowed or illegitimate should cease. And the burden of re- 
sponsibility in the matter is not on the Negro. It is on the white. 
It is not the Negro who has sought an intermixture with the white 


® Murphy, The Present South, pp. 275-277. 
Du Bois, Darkwater, p. 3 £. 


332 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


race. It is the white race which has forced its blood upon the 
Negro. The violation of race integrity all over the world is the 
offense of the white race. It is a curious fact that the race which 
has most highly exalted the theory of race integrity should have 
done most to destroy it. How familiar are words like these of 
Senator Vardaman, of Mississippi: 


“This is a white man’s government and therefore must remain 
a white man’s country. And everything that interferes in any way 
with the industrial and political supremacy of the white race, be- 
tokens evil and ought to be avoided. 

“Race purity is indispensable to Caucasian supremacy. And 
the only way to maintain the supremacy is to prohibit by law the 
commingling of the races. It has been well said: It is idle to talk 
of education and civilisation and the like as corrective or compre- 
hensive agencies. All are weak and beggarly as over against the 
almightiness of heredity, the omnipotence of the transmitted germ 
plasma. Let this be shorn in some measure of its exceeding 
weight of ancestral glory, let it be soiled in its millennial purity 
and integrity and nothing shall ever restore it; neither wealth nor 
culture, nor science, nor art, nor morality, nor religion—and even 
Christianity itself.” ° 


How familiar are such words, and how futile, over against the 
plain fact of increasing racial intermixture between black and 
white. Some of the states, as has been already said, forbid by 
law the marriage of black and white people and some of them, like 
Virginia, are striving earnestly through competent and conscien- 
tious officials to protect the purity of the two races. But in these 
respects, the effort is beset by difficulties: (1) The births in white 
families are diminishing. (2) Unlegalised mingling of the races 
seems to be unpreventable. (3) All who bear any trace of Negro 
blood, however slight, are classified as Negroes, so that the ‘“‘ white 
blood” already in the Negro race is ever more and more widely 
distributed.®° 

But, it may be asked, if the human race is one and its ultimate 
goal is a unified humanity, why are not those men and women of 


* New York Sun, April 23, 1913. 


® See Bulletins of Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics; The Nation, Jan. 
10, 1923, art. “ Alabama, A Study in Ultra Violet.” 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 333 


various races to be praised who pioneer the road by intermarriage? 
For two reasons: Because the ideal of organic unity in humanity 
is not identical with racial uniformity. And, because, as St. Paul 
argued in his day, while races have the right to intermarry and it 
is better for them to intermarry than to burn, and far better than 
to breed an amalgam of illegitimacy, the course of rational race 
respect and race relationship and race discharge of duty is to be 
preferred to the course of those who yield these values for the 
sake of lesser goods. 

6. From the proposed solutions of the race problem which offer 
us no hope we turn to the only reasonable and right answer. We 
are our brothers’ keepers. Those who are strong ought to bear the 
burdens of the weak. We live in the bonds of a universal trustee- 
ship. Colour and climate and language and physiological traits 
are all secondary matters. Heredity and education alike entail 
obligations but entitle to no privilege except the privilege of 
service. All the races are in the world to help one another, to 
work together for their common good, to build unitedly on the 
earth a human commonwealth. Even in his gloomy prediction of 
the day when the white men are to be jostled from their place of 
supremacy, Mr. Pearson takes comfort in the thought that the 
white races will themselves have brought the new day in: “ The 
solitary consolation,” he adds to the words already quoted, “ will 
be that the changes have been inevitable. It has been our work to 
organise and create, to carry peace and law and order over the 
world, that others may enter in and enjoy.” °° The entering in of 
others will not be our exclusion. In their joy our joy will be ful- 
filled. And they also will have their contribution to make to us 
and to all. The right solution of the race problem is the simple 
solution of justice and righteousness, of brotherhood and good 
will. It is quite true that innumerable difficult problems of poli- 
tics and economics are to be solved and that right thought as well 
as right feeling is essential but, except on the philosophy that 
economic and physical determinism is more powerful than moral 
liberty and social purpose, man is equal, under God and with the 


* Pearson, National Life and Character, p. 84. 


334 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


guidance and help of God, to the work that is to be done. It in- 
volves elements which are already clear to us and, as we go on 
with courage and a right spirit, other elements will appear. 

~ (1) Races must recognise their economic inter-dependence and 
common interests. No race, as we have seen, can permanently 
profit by the loss of other races. Trade must be mutually bene- 
ficial or it cannot endure. Capital must be employed where it can 
serve all men best or it will not serve best either its owners or the 
race to which they belong. It cannot be said that tariffs designed 
to promote racial or national independence have not their place, 
but they reach their limit when they advantage one race to the 
detriment of the mass of human well being. Generalisations like 
these can be multiplied indefinitely. But the principle underlying 
them is simple and fundamental. Lowell expresses it in a single 
line in “ The Crisis,” “In the gain or loss of one race all the rest 
have equal share.” 

This economic unity of the world is a fact from which there can 
be no escape. It is as sure and inevitable as common sunlight or 
the common laws of nature. No political isolation or tariff bar- 
riers can deliver us from it. They are-themselves a recognition 
of it and an attempt to reach an adjustment with it. And this 
economic unity will become still clearer and more inexorable. 
The whole human race must use together the whole world. Every 
solution of the race problem which proceeds on any other as- 
sumption will break down. 

(2) This community of racial interest is moral and social as 
well as economic, and the races must recognise this as an essential 
element in their solution of the race problem. All races must be 
lifted or the lower will drag the upper down. Races can fall as 
well as rise.8’ What Dr. J. L. M. Curry said long ago is clear to 
all today with regard to the Negro and the white in the South. 
Unless the white race lifts the black race “ both will be inevitably 
dragged down.” The South African Native Races Committee, of 
which Sir John Macdonell was Chairman, put this view plainly 
in their second report: 


* Kidd, The Control of the Tropics, p. 50 f. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 335 


“ Nothing could be more unworthy, or in the long run more dis- 
astrous, than that the whites in South Africa should regard the 
natives as a mere ‘ labour asset.’ If this view prevailed—and it is 
to be feared that it still has some advocates—it would inevitably 
result in the demoralisation of the white communities. ‘ We have 
to bear in mind,’ writes Sir Marshal Clarke, ‘ that where two races 
on different planes of civilisation come into such close contact as 
do the whites and blacks in South Africa, they act and react on 
each other, and where the higher race neglects its duty to the lower 
it will itself suffer.’ Neglect of this duty has many serious conse- 
quences, but perhaps none more disastrous than its effects on the 
white children. Mr. P. A. Barnett, the late Director of Educa- 
tion in Natal, in his report for 1904, draws special attention to 
this vital matter. ‘ Of the baser and more cruel contamination,’ he 
says, ‘liable to result from the intimate domestic contact of little 
European children with people whose life, thoughts, and speech 
are habitually at a low level, it is hard to speak in the measured 
terms that decorum requires. One may have the most real respect 
for the Zulu folk in their places, and in regard to the stage of 
their development; but, apart from the hard pressure of social 
difficulty, here, where so many influences fight against the refine- 
ment and elevation of life, little Zulu drudges are the worst train- 
ers of youth that we can employ.’ As Mr. Barnett justly says, 
‘the mental and moral development of the white children is in- 
extricably involved in that of the black.’ ” °° 


Even where races are not living together their community of 
moral and social interest is not less real. The thoughts of every 
race, like its diseases, are not segregable. There is no quarantine 
that can wholly bar disease, and the barriers against ideas are still 
less effective. The only safety of any one race is not in isolation, 
but in a pure and clean world. 

(3) It is quite true that these are ideas of which we are speak- 
ing, and it is often said that the relations of life are governed not 
by these sentimental considerations, but by the hard economic 
facts. But these ideas are facts. They are the hardest economic 
and physical facts with which we have to deal. ‘‘ The sympathies 
of peoples with peoples,” said J. R. Green, “the sense of a com- 
mon humanity between nations, the aspirations of nationalities 


* The South African Natives, p. 187. 


336 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


after freedom and independence, are real political forces.” And 
no one can escape from them. And a third fact, equally hard and 
equally fruitful of effect with these, is the fact of racial thought 
and feeling toward other races. The right solution of the race 
problem requires that each race shall cultivate a feeling of respect 
and tolerance toward other races, and of sympathy with them in 
struggles which our race has often made more difficult for them. 
Lord Meston speaks of this in the case of the British race and In- 
dia: “ We must study the new conditions with a sympathetic en- 
deavour to understand them; and we must look back on our own 
relations with these Eastern lands, on a good deal for which we 
have to make amends, but on much else which we have given as a 
pledge that we mean to give more and of our best.” °° Each race 
is bearing a great burden. Napoleon’s adage as he met a labourer 
beneath a heavy load and stepped deliberately out of the way, is a 
good racial counsel, “ Respect the burden”—and respect the 
human bearers of it.?° 

(4) Whatever the advanced races have of knowledge or power 
they ought to conceive in terms of trusteeship. There are some 
today who discredit the idea that the white races are in possession 
of any great trust for the world. Mr. Pepper thinks that our 
American literacy is not education and is little to be preferred to 
the illiteracy of Asia.2* And Mr. Russell thinks Chinese civilisa- 
tion superior for the Chinese to our own. Nevertheless these men 
personally adhere to and make use of the civilisation and educa- 
tion which they criticise and go abroad to teach the nations. We 
may not have all that we think we have. Every race, no doubt, 
exaggerates itself and its acquisitions and powers. But whatever 
any race really does have it holds not for itself alone, but for all 
the races. And we have come at last, after long delay, to what 
ought from the first to have been in our sense of trusteeship. 
Not only do we hold what is ours for all men, but we hold what 
we have taken over from other races for all men. At last we 


® The East and the West, Jan., 1923, p. 77. 

See art. in The East and the West, Jan., 1923, on “The Japanese Treat- 
ment of Korea,” p. 61. 

“Century Magazine, June, 1923, art. “The Real Revolt Against 
Civilisation.” 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 337 


realise that what we hold of any other race we hold for that race 
as well as for civilisation. Articles XXII and XXIII of the Cove- 
nant of the League of Nations embody this acknowledgment and 
indicate the long distance we have come from the old days of 
imperialistic expansion. These articles read as follows: 


ARTICLE XXII. 


“To those Colonies and Territories which, as a consequence of 
the late War, have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States 
which formerly governed them, and which are inhabited by peo- 
ples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous con- 
ditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle 
that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred 
trust of civilisation, and that securities for the performance of this 
trust should be embodied in this covenant. 

“The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is 
that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced 
nations who, by reason of their resources, their experience, or 
their geographical position, can best undertake this responsibility, 
and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be 
exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League. 

“The character of the mandate must differ according to the 
stage of the development of the people, the geographical situation 
of the territory, its economic conditions, and other similar 
circumstances. 

“Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Em- 
pire have reached a stage of development where their existence as 
independent nations can be provisionally recognised subject to the 
rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory 
until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of 
these communities must be a principal consideration in the selec- 
tion of the Mandatory. 

“Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such 
a stage that the Mandatory must be responsible for the adminis- 
tration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee 
freedom of conscience or religion, subject only to the maintenance 
of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the 
slave trade, the arms traffic, and the liquor traffic, and the preven- 
tion of the establishment of fortifications or military and naval 
bases and of military training of the natives for other than police 
purposes and the defence of territory; and will also secure equal 
opportunities for the trade and commerce of other Members of 
the League. 


338 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“ There are territories, such as South-West Africa and certain 
of the South Pacific Islands, which, owing to the sparseness of 
their population, or their small size, or their remoteness from the 
centres of civilisation, or their geographical contiguity to the ter- 
ritory of the Mandatory, and other circumstances, can be best 
administered under the laws of the Mandatory as integral portions 
of its territory subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the 
interests of the indigenous population. 

“In every case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the 
Council an annual report in reference to the territory committed 
to its charge. 

“The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exer- 
cised by the Mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the 
Members of the League, be explicitly defined in each case by the 
Council. 

“A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and 
examine the annual reports of the Mandatories and to advise the 
Council on all matters relating to the observance of the Mandates.” 


ARTICLE XXIII. 


“Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of interna- 
tional conventions existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the 
Members of the League 

“(a) will endeavour to secure and maintain fair and humane 
conditions of labour for men, women, and children, both in their 
own countries and in all countries to which their commercial and 
industrial relations extend, and for that purpose will establish and 
maintain the necessary international organisation ; 

“(b) undertake to secure just treatment of the native inhabit- 
ants of territories under their control ; 

“(c) will entrust the League with the general supervision over 
the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic in women 
and children, and the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs ; 

“(d) will entrust the League with the general supervision of the 
trade in arms and ammunition with the countries in which the con- 
trol of this traffic is necessary in the common interest ; 

“(e) will make provision to secure and maintain freedom of 
communications and of transit and equitable treatment for the 
commerce of all Members of the League. In this connection the 
special necessities of the regions devastated during the war of 
1914-18 shall be borne in mind; 

“(f) will endeavour to take steps in matters of international 
concern for the prevention and control of disease.” 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 339 


The League is also charged with duties in behalf of the protec- 
tion of racial, religious and linguistic minorities.®? 

Under these provisions the League has assigned mandates to 
the Allied nations and established a Permanent Commission to 
which the Mandatory powers must report. 


“To secure impartiality, a majority of the members of the com- 
mission are citizens of non-mandatory countries. Their task will 
be scrupulously to examine all reports and present their advice to 
the Council of the League. 

“The supreme object is to prevent the mandatory system from 
developing into something akin to annexation and to insure the 
establishment of a world colonial policy under international super- 
vision. Each administrating country, it is hoped, will be stimu- 
lated through publicity and the resultant force of public opinion 
to exercise the best possible government for the many millions of 
people under its control. The chief interest of the League is to 
ascertain whether the territories are being governed in the highest 
interest of the native populations formerly under Turkish or 
German rule. 

“England has the greater part of German East Africa, Meso- 
potamia and Palestine under mandate. Australia has New 
Guinea, and New Zealand has Samoa. The Pacific islands north 
of the Equator were turned over to Japan. France received Syria 
and the major part of Togoland and Kamerun, and Belgium the 
district of German East Africa bordering on the German Congo. 

“Separate reports are submitted on the question of slavery and 
labour in the affected territories, as well as education and the 
liquor traffic.” 9? 


At the meeting of the Mandates Commission in Geneva, in July, 
1923, the newspaper dispatches reported: 


“In answer to the Commission’s questions, the Japanese re- 
ported that there was no liquor problem in the South Sea Islands, 
as the use of alcohol was forbidden to the natives. There was 
freedom of trade and religion, especially Christianity, to which 
almost all the natives have been converted. ‘Thirty-four mission- 
aries, among them three Americans and twenty-six Spaniards, 


* Handbook on the League of Nations, published by “ World Peace 
Foundation,” p. 308 f. 
* New York Times, July 20, 1923. 


340 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


received every facility in spreading Christianity, which Japan con- 
siders is powerful in elevating the moral standard of the people. 

“The Mandates Commission of the League supervises the wel- 
fare of 16,000,000 people governed under the mandates of various 
Powers. It will insist on its prerogative of criticising the manage- 
ment of these territories. This was made clear at today’s session 
of the commission when Marquis Thedoli, its President, protested 
against the assembly’s criticism of the Commission’s policy of pub- 
licity. He insisted that the Commission’s views should always be 
freely voiced, as otherwise abuses might develop. 

“The President appealed to all the mandatory countries to take 
more interest in the work of the Commission and in the great ex- 
periment of the League to advance the welfare of the backward 
peoples under the new form of colonial policy, based upon the 
public opinion of the world. 

“A letter was read from Premier Smuts of the Union of South 
Africa, saying that he believed the mandatory system was a great 
step forward. He also said that 7,000 Germans of former Ger- 
man Southwest Africa may elect to become citizens of the Union 
of South Africa, choosing a popular council and sending repre- 
sentatives to the Parliament of the Union. 

“The Commission invited representatives of all the mandatory 
States to come to Geneva for an examination of the conditions in 
their territories, after which the Commission will draft its 
TEPOtt ite 


Thus far, the chief complaint of racial injustice in the execution 
of the Mandates has been the protest of the Arabs and of the 
Pope against the establishment of “ absolute Jewish preponderance 
over all other peoples of Palestine, constituting a grave breach of 
existing rights of other nationalities.” %° 

There are strong races and there are weak races, advanced races 
and backward races. The problems of their relations will not be 
solved for many years. But the solution will be hastened by 
recognition of the principle of trusteeship. Economically that 
principle is the only sensible principle. The expedition into 
Mexico after Villa cost the United States $112,000,000. The 
Mexican unrest of which the Villa incident was a part has cost 
our nation and the world vastly more. A small portion of these 


* New York Times, July 21, 1923. 
® New York Times, June.16, 1922. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 841 


amounts spent in a spirit of brotherly helpfulness in Mexico in 
education would have averted all this loss and advanced Mexico 
on her way by at least two generations. 

Trusteeship, however, as a solution of the race problem in- 
cludes and involves that very problem itself. Many of the wards 
of such trusteeship deem themselves ready for independence 
before the trustee is assured and the trustee invariably finds the 
task of dissolving the trust and emancipating his charge more 
difficult than the original establishment of the trustee relationship, 
or even than the process by which he came to accept theoretically 
the idea of trusteeship in lieu of the imperialism by which the 
original authority was established. As Sir Valentine Chirol has 
said: “So long as we can treat such peoples as children, all the 
best qualities of our race, our instincts of justice and fair play, 
our natural kindliness, our sense of responsibility as trustees of 
the material welfare of all those committed to our care, find full 
and congenial scope. Our difficulties begin when those children 
grow up and, claiming the benefits of everything that we have our- 
selves taught them, ask to be released from our leading strings and 
to be treated as equals. 

“That is where the trouble begins, for the claim to equality, 
though we may be willing to admit in principle, conflicts with 
the racial pride which is undoubtedly one of the defects of our 
qualities.” °° It would be a happy thing if racial pride were the 
only difficulty. A true racial pride on both sides would assist and 
smooth the transition. 

(5) The right of racial integrity, to be developed wherever pos- 
sible into national autonomy, should be recognised. The success 
of civilisation would involve the realisation of both these ends. 
They are both consistent with and involved in the ideal of democ- 
racy whether national or universal. “ Democracy does not mean 
the erasure of individuality in the man, the family, or the race. 
Its unity is truer and richer because not run in one colour or ex- 
pressed in monotony of form. Like all vital unities, it is com- 
posite. It is consistent with the individuality of the man, it is 


% Outward Bound, August, 1923, p. 804, art., “Social Relations and 
Race Feeling.” 


342 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


consistent with the full individuality and the separate integrity of 
the races. No one has ever asserted that the racial individuality 
of the Jew, preserved for sixty centuries and through more than 
sixty civilisations, by conviction from within and by pressure 
from without, was a contradiction of democratic life. Democracy 
does not involve the fusion of races any more than it involves the 
fusion of creeds or the fusion of arts. It does not imply that the 
finality of civilisation is in the man who is white or in the man 
who is black, but in the man—white or black—who is a man. 
Manhood, in a democracy, is the essential basis of participation.” °7 
It is the business of the strong races to help on the weak races in 
the hope that they may be able to stand alone in the exercise of 
self-government and in the accomplishment of the world’s work. 
The advance of such a democratisation would inevitably mean the 
recession of Islam, and the approach of any race toward full self 
realisation means its approach to Christianity.®® 

7. Is this true? Does the solution of the race problem belong 
to Christianity? May we believe, as the “ International Creed ” 
of the Commission on International Justice and Good Will of the . 
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ declares, “that the 
Spirit of Christian brotherhood can conquer every barrier of 
trade, colour, creed and race”? We may believe this. This is 
what we must believe. All the conceptions which have emerged 
as involved in the true view of race and the true solution of the 
race problem, are Christian conceptions. Historically they came 
into the thought of man through Christianity. They derive what 
vitality and power they possess from the Christian spirit. In 
closing this chapter three of the great ideals of. Christianity may 
be suggested as fundamental. 

(1) Its ideal of equality. Christianity affirms human equality 
in the sense in which it is true. ‘The races are not equal in their 
capacities or achievements or progress. Professor Conklin is 
quite right: “ Every human race has its good qualities and its bad 
ones, but human history as well as biology refutes those idealists 


* Murphy, The Present South, p. 19. 
* Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1920, art. “Islam,” p. 680. 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 343 


who claim that there are no lower races or types, that all men are 
born equal.” ®° In many respects men are not born equal, and 
even if they were they would not remain so. And races are only 
kindred and measurably assimilated groups of men. They differ 
both by and in inheritance and education and character. But in 
the true sense Christianity affirms that all men and all races are 
equal. They have equal rights to justice and to life, to happiness 
and to work, to self development and to liberty. They have the 
capacity each to do his own duty and to fulfill his own functions. 
Christianity asserts the equal right of man as man to be his best 
and to do the most, and it asserts this equal right for every man 
of every race. This assertion is essential to the production of the 
human values which the whole race needs. Any theory of race 
inequality which prevents this will rob humanity of potential 
human capacity; for, as Prof. Thorndike has shown, “ selection 
by race of original natures to be educated is nowhere nearly as 
effective as selection of the superior individuals regardless of 
race. There is much overlapping and the differences in original 
nature within the same race are, except in extreme cases, many 
times as great as the differences between races as wholes.” 1° 
These individuals have their right to the freest and largest life, 
unforbidden because of race connection. And each race has its 
right to self fulfilment according to its highest possibilities.1 

(2) Its ideal of service and love. The military and economic 
education through which we have passed has derided the senti- 
mental considerations. But love and sympathy and service, never- 
theless, are the primary forces. Even the military and economic 
appeals make use of love of country and of service to race and of 
duty to symbols like the flag, thus confessing the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments. The race problem will not be solved by men 
who are driven to the philosophic conclusion that only brother- 
hood will solve it. Brotherhood is not a force which will come to 
such a summons. It is to be found only where men look upon 
other men with a brother’s love. The idea and power of such a 


® The Yale Review, April, 1917, p. 480. 
1 ‘Thorndike, Educational Psychology, Vol. II, p. 224. 
tet See paper by H. D. Griswald, Jesus Christ and Human Personaltty. 


344 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


love is historically and peculiarly Christian. And the great inter- 
racial services of the world are all traceable to a Christian source. 

At Indianapolis, Indiana, during the Christmas holidays in De- 
cember, 1923, between six and seven thousand students were gath- 
ered under the auspices of the Student Volunteer Movement for 
Foreign Students. Only a fraction of those present expected to 
go as missionaries, but all were there because of their interest in 
the present-day problems of world relationships. The two sub- 
jects which commanded most attention and interest were race and 
war. The students broke up for several sessions into discussion 
groups of about a hundred each, where the whole discussion was 
in the hands of the students themselves. Naturally not all that 
was said was judicious or well informed, but one thing was un- 
mistakably clear, namely, that these students wanted to view the 
problems of race and war in the light of the principles of Christ. 
Whatever criticism might be made of some of their suggestions 
it is certain that none but Christian students could ever have 
brought in such proposals as those which the discussion group 
leaders, all students, brought from their groups to the whole 
Convention : 


‘Eliminate the white superiority complex ingrained in primary 
schools ; 

“Get together various races in groups on the campus for prayer 
and thought and fellowship together ; 

“ Bring in leaders of other races to speak and meet students; 

“ Utilise every opportunity to become friends with members of 
other races whenever we meet them (this in some sections would 
involve visits to segregated areas) ; 

“Oppose organisations working toward the attitude of racial 
superiority ; 

“Work through journalism in every possible way to change the 
press feeling of the country. (The suggestion was made to begin 
tackling the problem by converting our own families.) ; 

“Work for breaking down discriminations because of race in 
dormitories, societies, athletics, fraternities, churches, in college 
life generally ; 

“Give money to support organisations which are working for 
these ends; 

“ Promote education ; do all we can for the inclusion in the cur- 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 345 


riculum of courses in history which present a fairer and more 
Christian attitude than the ones now given ; 

“Be living examples of Christ’s spirit whenever a race issue 
appears ; 

“Indulge in real thinking and study on the reasons for the 
present prejudiced attitude ; 

“Right concrete racial wrongs and work together with those 
from other nations for the same great cause.” 1° 


(3) Its ideal of unity. The conception of human unity which 
Christianity has propagated and which resides in its universality 
of character and claim, has happily spread widely over human 
thought and effort. Dr. Reinsch has summarised the facts of the 
new world mind: 


“The cardinal fact of contemporary civilisation is the unifica- 
tion of the world, the emergence of organic relations, world-wide 
in scope, uniting the branches of the human family in all parts of 
the earth. . . . Great types of character are no longer merely 
national household names, but their lineaments are known the 
world over and everywhere interest is taken in their views and 
actions. There is a world-wide sympathy, so that if evil befall in 
California, or Chile, or Italy, or China, the entire world is affected 
and all nations are anxious to offer their aid and bear their share 
of the burden. 

“The growth of world unity which we have witnessed in our 
day has already modified, and even superseded to some extent, the 
effect of geographic separation, of political nationalism or particu- 
larism, and of economic exclusiveness. Economic and _ social 
forces are beginning to flow in a broad natural stream, less and 
less hampered by dynastic and partisan intrigue, by protectionist 
walls, by monopolies and all sorts of exclusive privileges. 

ai hrough participation in the scientific spirit, those deep- lying 
differences in point of view, which had been developed through 
centuries of historic experience, are giving way to a unified mode 
of seeing and solving the problems of life. 

“While national policy still strives to reserve some special bene- 
fits to citizens, the dominant note in industrial life is no longer 
national but international. This is also indicated by the manner 
in which practically every economic interest has organised itself 


22 For an illustration of the right spirit of inter-racial friendship and 
good will, see Fraser, Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, pp. 60-74. 


346 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


on an international scale. Such great unions as those in which the 
activities of insurance, of railway management, of shipping, of 
agriculture, of building, of law, of education, and of science are 


discussed and acted upon, are the final proof that economic or- 


ganisation has for ever abandoned the narrower field and recog- 
nises no confining local limits.” 1° 


But these unities are frail and need some deeper spiritual basis, 
And also they need some principle which will protect us against 
the risk of world uniformity. A universal social mind filled with 
the whole world content is our goal, but how is personal and racial 
individuality to be preserved in it??°* Christianity has the only 
adequate assurance. Read again Paul’s great passages in I Cor. 
XII, 12-27 and Eph. II and III and IV and Col. I. In the New 
Testament conception, humanity is a body of which Christ is the 
Saviour and Head. The races are members of an organism living 
one common life, sharing alike the honour and health of the whole 
body of which each is a part. There is unity of body, variety of 
function, identity of interest, equality of life and joy.?” 

“ After all,” as Mr. Mornay Williams writes, “ it is the personal 
and living Christ, not the body of ideas, or philosophy of life, 
which most persons have in mind when they speak of Christianity, 


which is the reconstructive principle. Our Lord’s own words are 


both the explanation and the demonstration of His place and 
power: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ Apart from His 
person there is no access to the Father or to the unity of mankind. 
A striking illustration of the inevitableness of this personality of 
the truth is the scene in Pilate’s judgment hall where Jesus, the 
Word of God manifest in the flesh—the embodied Truth—stood 
before His Roman judge, who, vacillating and harassed, cried 

ut, ‘ What is truth?’ and the next moment, looking to the Jews, 
said: ‘I find in Him no fault at all.’ In much the same fashion 
the wisdom and science of our modern world faces the problems 
which confront it, and not least, the racial problems, and as men 





18 Universal Races Congress, 1911, paper on “Influence of Geographic, 
Economic and Political Conditions,” pp. 49 f., 52, 54. 

™ Ross, Social Psychology, p. 363 ff. 

15 See The Christian Union Quarterly, day 1924, art. by Dean Inge, 
“Reunion: An Englishman’s View,” p. 


= = el ee ae ee ee 


THE SOLUTION OF THE RACE PROBLEM 347 


eagerly question: ‘What is truth? How shall we conserve the 
best? How shall we save life, individual life and racial life? 
How shall we escape war and bloodshed?’—over against them 
stands the calm figure of Jesus Christ, the King of Righteousness 
and Prince of Peace, saying, “I am come that ye might have life 
and have it more abundantly. Whosoever shall seek to save his 
life, shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve 
it.” In the Te Deum of history the noble army of martyrs and 
the glorious company of the apostles as they praise God, contin- 
ually affirm and prove the truth of these words for the individual, 
and gradually, here a little and there a little, the races and families 
of the earth are spelling out the truth in an anthem of praise that 
is a deepening echo of the song of peace on earth, good will to 
men; for the method of Jesus is to make men friends to one an- 
other through Himself and the purpose of Jesus is to create a new 
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 

Here is the solution of the race problem. If, looking out over 
humanity, torn with race feuds and embittered with race hatreds, 
we ask with Paul, ‘“ Who can deliver us from the body of this 
death?” the answer is simple and clear, “ Christ is the Saviour | 
of this body.” And this is not a mere pious vagary. It is the 
hardest and most fundamental social and political fact. 

In many races we begin at last to see light. We shall meet in 
the next chapter the new mind which is taking shape in America. 
And Gabriella Mistral, the Chilean poetess, speaks the highest 
thought of Latin America: “Every day I see more clearly the 
necessity, yea, the tragical necessity, that all of those who by one 
road or another are looking for Christ and who desire to hasten 


REAL 


His reign on the earth, must unite, facing such an inferior and | 
dense materialism as we find at this hour, which probably will — 


gene 


esc 


bring to death our modern civilisation if it is not totally cleaned | 
of this gangrene. We people of faith have the most urgent duty | 


of forgetting our various petty divisions and remembering only 
that we belong to Christ.” 


VII 
SOME SPECIFIC RACK PROBLEMS OF TODAY 


1. Our greatest American race problem is the problem of rela- 
tions between the white and black races. In some respects the 
situation is more hopeful, in others more alarming than it has 
even been. It is more hopeful because among both the black and 
the white people there is a growing body of the best men and 
women who realise the gravity of the situation, who are ready to 
co-operate in dealing with it, who believe that the application of 
Christianity to the problem is its only solution and who are con- 
vinced that Christianity must be applied to its solution. Indeed 
the Christian forces are the only forces which are really grappling 
with the issue. Nothing has ever shown the inadequacy and the 
helplessness of all other forces in facing a real and perilous race 
situation more sharply than it has been shown in this matter. And 
no one can read the literature on this subject of twenty years ago 
and then the literature which the South is producing today with- 
out realising the immense progress that has been made in the cour- 
age and justice and hopefulness with which the Christian people 
of both races in the South are meeting this real crisis. 

Among the evidences of this spirit and as illustrating the right 
method of approach to race problems nothing has been more no- 
table than the growth of inter-racial co-operation, especially since 
the inauguration of the Southern Sociological Congress in 1912, in 
Nashville, Tenn. Its program covered the whole field of social 
and moral need in the South and it specifically included among the 
things for which the Congress stood “ the solving of the race ques- 
tion in a spirit of helpfulness to the Negro and of equal justice to 
both races.” It issued “a challenge to Southern chivalry to see 
that justice is guaranteed to all citizens regardless of race, colour 
or religion and especially to befriend and defend the friendless 
and helpless,” and “a challenge to the present generation to show 


348 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 349 


its gratitude for the heritage bequeathed to it through the toil and 
blood of centuries by devoting itself more earnestly to the task of 
making the nation a universal brotherhood.”! Out of the first 
meeting of the section on Race Relations came the appointment of 
a Southern University Commission on the Negro, with a repre- 
sentative from nearly every Southern State University. This 
commission met for organisation in December, 1912. It reported 
to the Atlanta Congress a broad outline of investigation to be 
undertaken in regard to conditions—religious, educational, hy- 
gienic, economic and civic; the duty of whites in improving these 
conditions; and the ideal of race-relations towards which the 
South should move.? The spirit in which this Commission has 
been working is revealed in its letter of Jan. 14, 1922, to the col- 
lege men of the South, signed by representatives of ten southern 
State Universities, calling on the students of the South 


“to assist in moulding public opinion and to co-operate in all 
sane efforts to bring about a more tolerant spirit, more generous 
sympathy, and larger measure of good-will and understanding 
between the best elements of both races. 

“In this letter the Commission wishes to call attention to the 
progress made in the last few years in interracial co-operation. 
Already there are agencies at work developing such co-operation 
in local communities throughout the southern States. Noteworthy 
in this connection is the establishment of more than eight hundred 
county interracial committees in the southern States, as a result of 
the efforts of the Commission on Interracial Co-operation, organ- 
ised in 1919 by representative southern men and women, with its 
headquarters in Atlanta. This is a practical method of putting 
into service the leadership of both races. Sane, thoughtful men, 
who love truth and justice; can meet together and discuss prob- 
lems involving points of even strong disagreement and arrive at a 
common understanding, if only they remember to look for the next 
best thing to do rather than attempt to determine for all time any 
set of fixed policies or lay down an inclusive program for the 
future. The most fruitful forms of co-operation have been found 
in connection with such vital community problems as_ better 
schools, good roads, more healthful living, and more satisfactory 


*The South Mobilising for Social Service, p. 11 f. 
? Hammond, Jn Black and White, p. 212. 


350 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


business relations. In all these community efforts the good of 
both races is inseparably involved. 

“No fact is more clearly established by history than that hatred 
and force only complicate race relations. The alternative to this 
is counsel and co-operation among men of character and good will, 
and above all, of intelligent and comprehensive knowledge of the 
racial problem.” 


Not only have these inter-racial committees been established in 
800 counties, but the inter-racial State Committees also, likewise 
organised under the Commission on Inter-racial Co-operation, with 
larger power and influence have faced courageously the immense 
task before them.* The report of one Committee, made by a 
Negro, will be sufficiently representative of all, namely, the Inter- 
racial Committee of Kentucky for 1922. A few quotations will 
be adequate: 


“Although the coloured people of Kentucky are at this moment 
suffering from many grave injustices and handicaps, it is never- 
theless my conviction that never before in the history of the state 
were the relations between the races so pleasant and helpful as at 
the present time, and that the spirit of good will and co-operation 
was never so evident as it is today. The ground of this conviction 
is found in the ready and frank admission on the part of our white 
friends of these injustices and handicaps, their desire to know the 
facts and their willingness to discuss these grave inequalities with 
their coloured neighbours, with the purpose of devising ways and 
means by which these injustices may be corrected and these handi- 
caps removed, together with the progress actually made to 
that end. 

“In practically every county, through the influence of inter- 
racial committees or other agencies, school authorities have come 
to admit the right of Negro schools to their pro rata of the cor- 
poration tax. In some counties the officials are still slack in the 


®For striking evidence of what these Inter-racial Commissions are ac- 
complishing, see the reports of their work, e. g., Progress in Race Relations 
in Georgia, issued by the Georgia Committee on Race Relations, 416 Pal- 
mer Building, Atlanta, Ga.; Annual Meeting of the Commission on Inter- 
Racial Cooperation in the South, Fisk University News, Oct., 1923, pp. 
18-22; “An Adventure in Good Will,” in Fisk University News, March, 
1924, pp. 17-20; Conference of the Commission of the Federal Council of 
the Churches on the Church and Race Relations, Feb. 23, 1923, Federal 
Council Bulletin, Feb.-March, 1923, p. 31 f.; accounts of the observance of 
Race Relations Sunday, Jbid., p. 30. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 351 


observance of this law, but nowhere in the state is the right of 
the coloured people to such pro rata seriously questioned. It is the 
task, therefore, of the coloured people in each county, assisted by 
their white friends, to see to it that there is an equitable and legal 
division of these funds.” 


The Report cites the insufficient protection which the laws give 
coloured girls and coloured women against assault and refers to 
an unpunished assault on a little four year old coloured girl and 
to a Florida judge who had dismissed a similar case with the 
declaration that no white man could be convicted in his court on 
the testimony of Negroes only. But the report quotes also the 
resolution of the Commission’s Conference in 1921: 


“ Resolved: that appreciative attention be called to the fact that 
in Louisville, coloured tax-payers serve on both petit and grand 
juries apparently in just ratio to their respective numbers. What 
is safe in Louisville is certainly safe elsewhere in the state, and 
we express our earnest hope and expectation that the Negro will 
be given his full share in this field of service.” 


The resolutions adopted by this Commission at its meeting 
in Louisville, Dec. 15-16, 1922, are also representative and 
significant : 


“That race differences are based on prejudice, the basis of 
which is misunderstanding. 

“That race friction and false judgment between the races are 
hindrances to economics and to ethical and moral problems which 
can only be solved by knowledge on the part of both races. This 
knowledge will best be attained by a fair and mutual study of race 
relations. 

“There can be no question that righteousness, racial or other- 
wise, calls for equal justice and impartial enforcement of law in 
our courts regardless of race or colour. This each race should 
call for and support. 

“We also urge that Negroes who, under the law, are qualified 
for jury service be given their full opportunity thus to serve. 

“Further: we recommend that the press be urged to exercise 
care to publish impartially violations of law on the part of either 
race and also that it set before the public an impartial account of 
the meritorious achievements of both races. 


352 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“We recommend that a constant and determined effort be made 
to judge the Negro not by any traditions of the past, but by the 
advance guard who are looking to the highest possibilities of the 
future. The Negro should be judged, not by the disorderly and 
light minded of the race, but by those who are trained to meet the 
issues and bear the responsibilities of life today. 

“The committee is in thorough accord with the view that good 
will, founded upon intellectual, moral and spiritual knowledge, 
will produce a compelling power which, linked with the proper 
commanding physical forces, will combat the destructive work of 
prejudice and build constructive and well founded community life. 

“That a scale of adjustment of salaries in city high and normal 
schools be adopted which shall remove all racial inequality. 

“Realising that many white women have no adequate idea of 
the tragedy of the Negro woman’s upreach to the virtue of purity, 
we recommend a most sympathetic study of the question.” 


A new day has come among the students of the South in the 
matter of inter-race relations among the students, white and black. 
The first Southern Conference of the Student Fellowship for 
Christian Life Service, held in Atlanta, April 6-8, set a new stand- 
ard for the conduct of such meetings. The Committee on Local 
Arrangements, made up of students from some of the white insti- 
tutions in Atlanta, voted unanimously and without debate to invite 
the Negro students to be present and participate fully in the Con- 
ference. They agreed that it would be un-Christian to hold such 
a Conference otherwise. Among the speakers on the program 
were Peter Shih, a Chinese, and Professor Isaac Fisher, of Fisk 
University, a Negro. The meetings were held at one of the white 
Baptist churches and at the Y. M. C. A., and throughout the ses- 
sions there was no suggestion of racial discrimination. Students 
of both races served on the Committee on Findings, and the Con- 
ference adopted a resolution declaring “that the Student Fellow- 
ship Movement make a careful study of racial relationships, foster 
a spirit of kindliness and goodwill among all men, and endeavour 
to bring about peace and harmony among the races. 

The Emory Wheel, the student newspaper of Emory University 
(Georgia), in reporting the Conference said: “ A unique feature 
of the Conference was the presence of delegates from the coloured 
institutions of Atlanta. There could have been no better mam- 


a 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3538 


festation of Christian spirit than the friendship and fellowship 
that existed between the representatives of these colleges and the 
other colleges.” One of the leading Negro students, writing after 
the Conference, said: ‘I was much impressed with the attitude of 
the white students; the type of association which was ours was 
something unique in the realm of Christian experience in the 
Southland.” Those who know the condition of the past can ap- 
preciate the significance of such a development as this. 

The women of the South, both white and coloured, have taken 
their place in this forward movement.* They are members of the 


“At the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Coloured People, in Kansas City, August 29th to Septem- 
ber 5, 1923, one of the notable incidents was the address of Mrs. B. W. 
Bickett, of North Carolina, wife of the late ex-Governor of that state. She 
gave an account of the work of the Inter-racial Commission and added: 

“We are a long, long way from solving the race problem in the South, 
but we have made a hopeful beginning. As interested, thoughtful, white 
men and women we are seeking through our civic and religious organisa- 
tions to meet in a spirit of cooperation the leading men and women of the 
Negro race in the community in which we live. We are cooperating in a 
study of Negro community life, in housing and sanitation, better neigh- 
bourhood conditions, educational opportunities and the needs of Negro 
women and children, especially. We are becoming increasingly conscious 
of the fact that as those in authority, our responsibility towards the Negro 
cannot be evaded and many of our people are going forward with a 
determination that no unfair advantage shall be taken of the Negro, but 
that he shall receive justice and fair treatment which is his due, and which 
we cannot withhold if we wish to retain our self respect.” 

In a message to the people of the United States the annual convention at 
which Mrs. Bickett spoke, called attention to the fact that: “the destinies 
of the Negro and white races of the American continent are inseparable; 
that the races must, therefore, in the fullest sense work together for the 
realisation of the principles on which the American nation was founded. 
That unless the humblest citizen is guaranteed his citizenship rights there 
can be no true security for any one in the land.”—(Federal Council of the 
Churches, Research Department, /nformation Service, Nov. 3, 1923, p. 4.) 

And no one has spoken more fearlessly against violence and the organ- 
isations of violence than Mrs. W. C. Winsborough, one of the leading 
women of the South, Superintendent of the Women’s Auxiliary of the 
Southern Presbyterian Church, at a public meeting of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Federal Council of the Churches in Columbus, Ohio, in 
December, 1923: 

“The Ku Klux Klan, that organisation known as the ‘Invisible Em- 
pire, under the guise of patriotism is sowing seeds of race hatred, lawless- 
ness and anarchy which, if not checked, will strike at the very life of our 
national life itself. I come from a denomination which does not sanction 
a union of Church and State, which does not intermingle politics and reli- 
gion. Were the Ku Klux Klan a political organisation only, Christians 
might remain silent. Important as is the political side of its activity, how- 


354 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


inter-racial commissions, and, acting both in separate racial 
groups and together, they are looking the race issues squarely in 
the face. On October 12, 1922, eighteen North Carolina white 
women met in Raleigh and, having accepted membership on the 
State Committee on Race Relations, drafted and gave to the public 
the following declaration : 


“We believe that unrest existing between two different races, 
dwelling side by side under the same economic system and the 
same government can be lessened and eventually dispelled by a 
course of justice and fair play. When one race exceeds another 
in numbers, in possessions, and in opportunity, there is but one 
solution. Asa Christian people we hold the elements of that solu- 
tion. It lies in the cultivation of an attitude of fairness, of good 
will, and of conscious determination to establish an understanding 
sympathy. 

“We believe that every human being should be treated not as a 
means to another’s end, but as a person whose aspiration toward 
self-realisation must be recognised; that we must cherish racial 
integrity and racial self-respect, as well as such mutual respect as 
will lead to higher moral levels, to mutual trust and mutual help- 
fulness. We believe that in this process certain values must be 
developed and maintained. 

“No family and no race rises higher than its womanhood. 
Hence, the intelligence of women must be cultivated and the purity 
and dignity of womanhood protected by maintenance of a single 
standard of morals for both races. 

“The right of childhood to health and safety, to the training of 


ever, there is a moral and religious side which should not be overlooked by 
the Christian people of America. This organisation combines many of the 
evils which the Church has been decrying for years. Mob violence in its 
unlovely reality repels honest men, but the Ku Klux Klan disguises mob 
law under the guise of benefaction. 

“While persecuting the race from which our Master came, they have 
adopted the Cross as their symbol, and saddest of all, have enlisted among 
their followers thousands of those who profess to be followers of the lowly 
Nazarene who came to bring peace to the world and who called all men 
His brethren. 

“This: organisation is confined to no one section of the country but is 
reaching its terrible tentacles into every state in the Union. The time for 
inaction has passed. If this monster is to be crushed, it must be done by 
the Christian people of America. If we who believe that ‘He has made of 
one blood all nations of the earth’ remain silent in the face of so great an 
evil, the very stones themselves will cry out against us.’—Federal Council 
Bulletin, Jan.-Feb., 1924, p. 12 f.) 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 355 


body and mind in right habits and the soul in right purposes, is 
unchallenged. 

“The childhood of every race must be safeguarded, for races 
move forward on the feet of little children. 

“As a foundation for social security for all races, the family 
ideal must be made possible by economic justice, by religious sanc- 
tion, by legal safeguards, and a single standard of morals. 

“We believe that violence has no place where people lend their 
support in every possible way to the agencies constituted by the 
people for the apprehension, trial, and punishment of offenders 
against society. We resent the assertion that criminality can be 
controlled by lawless outbreaks, and woman’s honour protected 
by savage acts of revenge. 

“We believe it our highest duty to pursue these methods toward 
harmonious racial adjustment. 

“We believe that bitterness, resentment, and strife will yield to 
mutual trust only as we steadfastly cultivate in both races these 
attitudes and this faith in our common humanity. 

“To these ends we pledge ourselves.” ® 


Thousands of concrete instances of good feeling and good 
action between white and black could be gathered, and the daily 
papers could publish ten of these to every contrary instance of 
bad feeling and bad actions, but only the evil finds publicity or an 
occasional unique occurrence like the following from The New 
York Times of March 8, 1923: 


“ WiLL PENSION OLD SLAVES. 
“ South Carolina Rewards Negroes Faithful to Masters in 
Civil War. 

“ CorumBiA, S. C., March 7.—Faithful Negroes who stood by 
their masters during the Civil War were voted pensions by the 
South Carolina Legislature today. The House passed the John- 
stone bill providing such pensions, which already had passed the 
Senate by a vote of 67 to 34. 

“The bill provides that slaves who served the State and their 
masters in the Confederate Army during the war shall be granted 
pensions under virtually the same conditions as those now paid to 
Confederate veterans.” 


But the significant thing is not such an isolated incident. It is 


5 Home Mission Monthly, April, 1923, p. 129. 


356 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the steady patience and the growing intelligence of the Negro race 
and the ever developing purpose of the white race to see that 
absolute justice is done both to the Negro race and to its individ- 
ual members. 

But this is only the hopeful side of the picture. There is a 
darker one. As Dr. Haynes says: 


“A generation of Negroes who know not slavery has grown up 
with an increasing race consciousness and aspiration for Ameri- 
can opportunities. The descendants of the non-slave-holding 
white people now make up the majority of the population of the 
southern states and have come into power of two kinds: they have 
acquired a large share in the increasing industrial occupations and 
a large voice in civic and political matters. 

“With the race consciousness of the Negro gradually rising like 
the tides of the sea, has come a restlessness under the existing re- 
structions, limitations, and racial discriminations. 

“The races have been drawing apart; a cleavage from the 
cradle to the grave. Separate neighbourhoods in cities and im- 
personal relations on large plantations and in large industrial 
operations where both races are employed are only the larger out- 
lines of a more detailed segregation that ramifies in many direc- 
tions. In city and in country communities, Negroes and white 
people attend different churches. In the last fifty years, Negroes 
have built up national and international church organisations man- 
aged and controlled by Negroes. Separation in schools, public and 
private, except in most northern states, is well-nigh universal. 
There have grown up the mission colleges and secondary schools 
for the Negro youth, fostered by the Church Educational and 
Home Mission Boards. In the southern states, on all railroad 
trains there are separate cars or compartments in cars for white 
and coloured passengers. State laws or local ordinances require 
separation regulations on street cars. The old feeling of depend- 
ence of man upon master is rapidly disappearing on the Negro 
side, and the old feeling of paternal protectiveness is disappearing 
on the white side of the line. Many white people and Negro 
people, especially women and children, spend weeks, months and 
even years without any personal contact with those of the opposite 
race. In many places Negroes are buried in separate cemeteries.” ° 


But this is no new discrimination. ‘Thaddeus Stevens, half a cen- 


° Haynes, The Trend of the Races, p. 9f, 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 357 


tury ago, in the State of Pennsylvania, chose his last resting place 
deliberately in a cemetery where black and white might sleep side 
by side. “In the chief cemeteries of Lancaster it was stipulated 
by charter that no person of colour should be interred therein,” 
says one of Stevens’ biographers. 


“ Stevens had lots in both cemeteries, but he sent back the deeds, 
preferring to be laid to rest in Shreiner’s cemetery, a private and 
humble burying-ground not far from the center of Lancaster and 
near one of its public schools. ‘There on a worthy monument 
erected to his memory the visitor may read these characteristic 
words composed for his epitaph by the Great Democratic Com- 
moner himself : 


“*T repose in this quiet and secluded spot, 
Not from any natural preference for solitude, 
But finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules 
as to race, 
I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death 
The principles which I advocated through a long life, 
Equality of man before his Creator.’ 


“He died as he lived, the relentless foe of Privilege, the uncom- 
promising advocate of Democracy—of equal rights for all and 
special privileges for none beneath the law. ‘I know not what 
record of sin awaits me in the other world, but this I know—that 
I have never been guilty of despising a man because he was poor, 
because he was ignorant, or because he was black.’ These words 
fitly apply to the life and character of Thaddeus Stevens. Before 
all else he stood for liberty and the equal rights of men. To this 
faith he bore his consistent testimony from early life to the open 
grave and beyond.” ? 


With growing co-operation between black and white, there is 
also growing divergence. There are white elements which behave 
with anti-social hatred and in a spirit of race arrogance toward the 
Negro. There are other white elements too high-minded for such 
an attitude which nevertheless are satisfied with an inadequate 
ideal of justice for the Negro. There are black men whose pa- 
tience is worn thin or who despair of a peaceful solution of the 


7 Woodburn, Life of Thaddeus Stevens, p. 609. 


358 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


problem. And there are black men who are intemperate and who 
have accepted the war philosophy that the right way to right 
wrong is by force and violence. 

And who will say that the Negro has not been given already 
too great provocation for an increasing spirit of resistance to 
injustice and mistreatment ? 


“The following are some concrete illustrations from statements 
of Negroes: In 1919, at the time of the Washington (D. C.) riot, 
a most reliable Negro, a man of the rank and file of workers, 
said: ‘ During the riot I went home when through with my work 
and stayed there, but I prepared to protect my home. If a Negro 
had nothing but a fire poker when set upon, he should use it to 
protect his home. I believe all the men in my block felt the same 
way. I know they stayed ’round home more than usual.’ An- 
other Negro, a porter, said: ‘ We are tired of bein’ picked on and 
bein’ beat up. We have been through the war and given every- 
thing, even our lives, and now we are going to stop bein’ beat up.’ 
A third, commenting on the Chicago riot, said: ‘ These things 
(meaning riots) will keep on until we peaceable, law-abiding fel- 
lows will have nothing to do but to prepare to defend our lives and 
families. A Negro teacher said, ‘The accumulated sentiment 
against injustice to coloured people is such that they will not be 
abused any longer.’ ”’® 


The situation is made more acute by the fact that so much of the 
contact between the races is in the marginal land of idleness, 
shiftlessness and crime into which the lees of both races settle 
down. 

As we face this existing race situation in the United States what 
are the most living and significant aspects of the problem? 

(1) The most important thing is the temper of mind which will 
allow time for a solution and which will assure all parties to the 
issue that there is an adequate will to reach a just solution. For- 
tunately these two essentials are just the qualities with which the 
two races involved are most strongly endowed. The most notable 
gift of the Negro race is its patience and long suffering. In spite 
of all that the race has endured it has kept its good spirit and 


* Haynes, The Trend of the Races, p. 17. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACK PROBLEMS OF TODAY 359 


kindness. Its songs are free from all hate and vengeance. They 
breathe only friendship and steadfastness and hope. It is true that 
a more menacing note is beginning to appear, but still the true 
Negro heart hesitates to go further than young Joseph Cotter in 
his verse, ‘“ And What Shall You Say?” 


“ Brother, come! 
And let us go unto our God. 
And when we stand before Him 
I shall say— 
‘Lord, I do not hate, 
I am hated. 
I scourge no one, 
I am scourged. 
I covet no lands, 
My lands are coveted. 
I mock no peoples, 
My people are mocked.’ 
—And, brother, what shall you say?” 


Influential Negro leaders, both moderate and radical, still advo- 
cate this policy of patience even in the face of growing unrest 
among their people. “The way of hatred and bitterness and the 
sword,” says Isaac Fisher, “has failed to bring human justice 
and human rights, and if men cannot be moved to deeds of right- 
eousness through the power of good will and kindness, there is no 
hope.” ® ‘I believe in Patience,” says W. E. Du Bois, “ patience 
with the weakness of the Weak and the strength of the Strong, 
the prejudice of the Ignorant and the ignorance of the Blind; 
patience with the tardy triumph of Joy and the mad chastening 
of Sorrow ;—patience with God!” 1° 

When the Negro is asked to be patient a little longer he is asked 
only to be his own best self. And, on the other hand, the one 
thing that the American race can be counted on to come to at last 
is justice. Many interests may befog the road. Many weak and 
evil elements in each race may seek to argue that what 4s wrong 
is really right in order that they may do injustice with peace of 


® Fisk University News, May, 1923, p. 11. 
*” Du Bois, Darkwater, p. 4. 


360 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


conscience. The Advertiser, of Montgomery, Alabama, declared 
the right policy twenty years ago when it was not as easy to say 
these things as it 1s today: 


“That principle of eternal justice which bids the strong protect 
the weak, makes it our duty to protect the Negro in all his legal, 
industrial and social rights. We should see that he has equal and 
exact justice in the courts, that the laws bear alike on the black 
and the white, that he be paid for his labour just as the white man 
is paid, and that no advantage be taken of his ignorance and 
CLECIUItV Minit ae 

“And the task is a simple and easy one. The courts and juries 
should know no difference between whites and blacks when a 
question of right and justice is up for settlement. The man who 
employs a Negro to work for him should deal as fairly with him 
as he would deal by a white man. The life of a Negro who has 
done no wrong should be as sacred as the life of a white man. 
He is in our power politically and otherwise, and justice, human- 
ity, and good policy unite in demanding for him equal and exact 
justice. Keep the Negroes among us, give them the full protec- 
tion of the laws, and let them have justice in all things. That is 
the solution of the race question.” 1 


Sooner or later this nation will see right and will do right. But 
what is just and right in the matter of the status of the Negro in 
America? 

(Z) One thing that is obviously right is full economic freedom 
and opportunity. That was one of the issues settled when slavery 
died. Slavery had been the economic bondage of both the slave 
and his owner. Emancipation set them both free and left them 
both penniless. The economic recovery and advancement of the 
whole South is a romance. But we are concerned now with the 
Negro. His has been the labour which has largely made the New 
South. And what has been his share in the new industry and 
the wealth which he has produced? The Negro race constitutes 
between one-seventh and one-eighth of the total working popula- 
tion of the country. In the South he has been a far larger frac- 
tion. Nearly nine-tenths of the Negroes in the South over ten 


“The Advertiser, Sept. 16 and Oct. 6, 1903, quoted by Murphy, The 
Present South, p. 182 f. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 361 


years of age are wage earners and nearly all of these are em- 
ployed by white people. The number of those employed in manu- 
facturing and mechanical pursuits more than doubled in the years 
between 1890 and 1910. A summary in round numbers will suf- 
fice to show the progress of the Negro since the Civil War. 


1866 1922 
DS COPECO DUNATIOM yi soso wie pi erdials 4,000,000 10,500,000 
UGITIES | OW TCC 300) «bh chen iw lesteee beens 12,000 650,000 
Me LUMPP UW iaitei ops: the HAL ts takes $20,000,000 $1,500,000,000 
BUA SRO PETALC Tien «ais: ele 4servceheyuce 20,000 1,000,000 
Business conducted .......... 2,100 50,000 
Fiesrcont. literate. (else ater 3 10 80 
Colleges and normal schools... 15 500 
Students in public schools..... 100,000 2,000,000 
Spent for Negro education..... $700,000 $20,000,000 
Negroes spent on education.... $80,000 $2,000,000 
Number Negro churches...... 700 45,000 
Op CAN tSiverie nbs Be eye 600,000 4,800,000 
Sunday school pupils ......... 50,000 2,250,000 
Value of church property...... $1, 500, 000 $90, 000, 000 74 


The most significant item in this advance is the creation of the 
Negro home and all that it represents as a social and moral force, 
in the life of the race and the nation.’ The Negro has vindicated 
his right to full economic freedom, and all the rights of associ- 
ations in labour and capital within that freedom, and has proved 
himself to be a priceless asset to the nation. The South would 
have been economically handicapped without him. 

This progress of the Negro has come so steadily and gradually 
that we have been scarcely aware of it. But competent visitors 


See The South Mobilising for Social Service, pp. 368-397; and Moton, 
The Negro of Today, pp. 7-15; especially his comparison with Russia: 
“The serfs were emancipated in 1861. Fifty years after it was found that 
14,000,000 of them had accumulated about $500,000,000 worth of property, 
or about $35 per capita—about $200 per family. After this same lapse of 
time only about 30 per cent. of the Russian peasants were able to read and 
write. After fifty years of freedom the 10,000,000 Negroes in the United 
States have accumulated over $700,000,000 worth of property, or about $70 
per capita and $350 per family, while 70 per cent. of them have some edu- 
cation in books.” 

% Hammond, In Black and White, pp. 90-128; Haynes, The Trend of the 
Races, pp. 41-47, 169-172. 


362 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


from abroad discern it and are amazed at it. Dr. James Hender- 
son, of Lovedale, one of the leading Scotch missionaries in Africa, 
visited America in the spring of 1923, and this was his competent 
judgment: 


“T was impressed, first of all, with the fine physique of the 
Negro boys and girls in the United States. In Charleston I saw a 
parade in which the coloured boys were as fine in physique as the 
white. And the coloured boys and girls at schools like Tuskegee 
are remarkable. What I experienced in the South far transcended 
anything I had expected. The progress is marvellous. As to lan- 
guage, I pictured to myself the Scotch carried to Greece in early 
centuries, and mastering Greek. But that would be nothing in 
comparison with what the African slaves have done, in mastering 
English. One is amazed to see this ex-slave race thinking and 
speaking in the full moral power, wealth and freedom of the 
English language. In the classes at Hampton one sees in glorious 
reality the liberty of the sons of God. In Africa we are trying to 
get Christianity into the people. Here it is in them. Christianity 
is not a thing superimposed, it is there in nature and reality.” 


(3) The Negro’s rights include full political equality. Any 
limitations of franchise which debar him from voting ought to do 
so on other grounds than race. They ought to apply equally to 
all races. The question whether he should or should not have been 
enfranchised after the Civil War is an interesting but academic 
question. General S. C. Armstrong’s judgment on it is probably 
as fair and good as any man’s. In a public address in 1887 
he said: 


“ After all, being a citizen and a voter has more than anything 
else made the Negro a man. The recognition of his manhood has 
done much to create it. Political power is a two-edged sword 
which may cut both ways and do as much harm as good. In the 
main, it has, I believe, been the chief developing force in the 
progress of the race. It is, however, probable that this would not 
have been so had it not been for the support of a surrounding 
white civilisation which, though not always kind, has prevented 
the evils which would have resulted from an _ unrestricted 
black vote. 

“The political experience of the Negro has been a great educa- 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3638 


tion to him. In spite of his many blunders and unintentional 
crimes against civilisation, he is today more of a man than he 
would have been had he not been a voter. . . . Manhood is 
best brought out by recognition of it. Citizenship, together with 
the common school, is the great developing force in this country. 
It compels attention to the danger which it creates. There is 
nothing like faith in man to bring out the manly qualities. 

“ Suffrage furnished him (the Negro) with a stimulus which 
was terribly misused, but it has reacted and given him a training 
which it was out of the power of churches and schools to impart. 
The source of American intelligence is not so much the pedagogue 
as the system which gives each man a share in the conduct of 
affairs, leading him to think, discuss and act, and thus educating 
him as much by his failures as by his successes. Responsibility 
is the best educator.” 14 


Whatever may have been wise in the past, the fact is that under 
the Constitution of the United States the Negro is explicitly pro- 
tected against any denial or abridgement of his right to vote “on 
account of race, colour or previous condition of servitude.” This 
law has been annulled,’° and its annulment is now made a pretext 
for the annulment of the Eighteenth or Prohibition Amendment, 
as well. Contempt for one law is offered in justification for con- 
tempt of the other. There ought to be loyal compliance with both 
laws. It may well be that there should be qualifications for the 
suffrage which would disenfranchise Negroes, but the same quali- 
fications should apply to whites as well. And ultimately they 
will do so. As Mr. Murphy wrote to the Alabama Constitutional 
Commission in 1901: _ 


“Southern sentiment will not approve the disfranchisement of 
the illiterate Confederate soldier. In any civilisation, there is a 
deep and rightful regard for the man who has fought in the armies 
of the State. But, with that exception, the State must eventually 
protect itself, and protect the interests of both races, by the just 
application of the suffrage test to the white and black alike. The 
South must, of course, secure the supremacy of intelligence and 
property. This we shall not secure, however, if we begin with the 


* Talbot, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, p. 260 f. 
% Stephenson, Race Dtstinctions in American Law, p. 320 f. 


364 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


bald declaration that the Negro is to be refused the suffrage 
although he have both intelligence and property, and that the 
illiterate white man is to be accorded the suffrage although he 
have neither. Such a policy would, upon its face, sustain the 
charge that we are not really interested in the supremacy of intelli- 
gence and property, but solely in the selfish and oppressive su- 
premacy of a particular race. 

“Tt is not merely a question of itpeiee to the negro. It is a 
question of enlightened self-interest. No State can live and thrive 
under the incubus of an unambitious, uneducated, unindustrious, 
and non-property-holding population. Put the privilege of suf- 
frage among the prizes of legitimate ambition, and you have 
blessed both the Negro and the State. 

“Tf, on the other hand, we accept the administration of an edu- 
cational and property test which is to enfranchise the Negro on 
his acceptance of its provisions, and is to enfranchise the white 
man whether he accepts them or not, we shall have adopted a 
measure which will be an injustice to the white citizenship of the 
South. It will be an injustice to the white man for the reason 
that it places for the Negro a premium upon knowledge and 
property—makes for him.a broader incentive to the acquisition of 
an education and a home, leaves the white boy without such in- 
centive, makes the ballot as cheap in his hands as ignorance and 
idleness, and through indifference to the God-given relation be- 
tween fitness and reward, tempts the race which is supreme to 
base its supremacy more and more upon force rather than upon 
merit. 

“The absolute supremacy of intelligence and property, secured 
through a suffrage test that shall be evenly and equally applicable 
in theory and in fact to white and black—this will be the ultimate 
solution of the South for the whole vexed question of political 
privilege.” 16 


Adhering literally to Mr. Murphy’s argument, the illiterate 
Negro soldier who fought in the World War might protest against 
disfranchisement, but he will not do so if the same law lays its 
requirement upon white and black alike. And Lord Bryce was on 
the whole convinced that it should do this, that the Negro should 
have full political as well as full economic equality. He raises the 
question as the South has faced it and he replies: 


* Murphy, The Present South, pp. 194-197. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 365 


“The answer seems to be that as regards political rights, race 
and blood should not be made the ground of discrimination. 
Where the bulk of the coloured race are obviously unfit for po- 
litical power, a qualification based on property and education 
might be established which should permit the upper section of 
that race to enjoy the suffrage. Such a qualification would doubt- 
less exclude some of the poorest and most ignorant whites, and 
might on that ground be resisted. But it is better to face this 
difficulty than to wound and alienate the whole of the coloured 
race by placing them without the pale of civic functions and 
duies, 7! 


On the part of the Negro also there is need of restraint and mod- 
esty. Some of his vain and boisterous leaders do his cause 
no good. 

(4) The Negro race should have also full educational oppor- 
tunity. Not only should there be no educational discrimination 
against it, but on the contrary, for the sake of the State and of 
Society as a whole, there should be special and preferential care 
to bring the race onward. The idea of racial intellectual inferior- 
ity or incapacity for education is disputable, and even if it were 
not it would not be relevant. 

It is disputable. Psychological and educational tests among 
children and in the army have revealed an average intellectual 
superiority of the white over the black, but the difference has not 
been great enough to warrant any special racial pride on the part 
of the white when the heredity and educational advantages of the 
two races are taken into account. And in the case of individuals 
many blacks have demonstrated a marked superiority over white 
comparisons. And a worthy list of Negro authors, poets, in- 
ventors, painters, musicians, soldiers, doctors, teachers, orators, 
scientists, preachers and others proves the capacities and latent 
resources of the race.'§ 

But even if the Negro race should be inferior to the white, the 
real question is, will it not be a better race and of more value to 


“Bryce, The Romanes Lecture, 1902: The Relations of the Advanced 
and the Backward Races of Mankind, quoted by Murphy, Jbid., p. 334 f. 

1% See the New York Times, Current History, June, 1923, art. “The 
Negro Problem as Viewed by Negro Leaders.” 


366 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


the nation and the world, if it is given opportunity to be its best? 
“We may even expect,” argues Professor Thorndike, “that edu- 
cation will be doubly effective, once society recognises the advan- 
tages given to some and denied to others by heredity. That men 
have different amounts of capacity does not imply any the less 
advantage from or need of wise investment. If it be true, for 
example, that the Negro is by nature unintellectual and joyous, 
this does not imply that he may not be made more intelligent by 
wiser training or misanthropic and ugly-tempered by the treatment 
he now receives.” 19 ‘The experience of fifty years shows what 
new social values there are to accrue to all races in the United 
States from the fullest development of each. 

It is life or death to the white race to lift or fail to lift the 
black race with it. As Dr. Weatherford said at the second meet- 
ing of the Southern Sociological Conference, 


“The South is a solid South in more than a political sense. We 
are a solid South in a social sense. I mean whatever affects the 
social welfare of one man affects the social welfare of every other 
man in the section. We are bound together by the fact of prox- 
imity, we are bound together by economic relations, we are bound 
together by the traditions of the past, we are bound together by all 
the forces of present life which demand the guarding of our 
health, our ideals, and our civilisation. We are not eight million 
Negroes and twenty million whites; we are twenty-nine million 
human beings, and whatever affects one of our company must of 
necessity affect all the other 28,999,999, The sin of the immoral 
will destroy the safety of the moral, the disease of the weakest 
will destroy the health of the strongest, the prejudice of the most 
ignorant will warp the judgment of the most learned, the lawless- 
ness of the most criminal will blacken the fair name and drag into 
criminal action the law-abiding instincts of the highest citizens. 
We must stand or fall together. Thank God this is true! This 
insures that the learned shall not despise the ignorant, that the 
physically sound shall not despise the physically weak, the rich 
man cannot scorn the poverty-stricken, the righteous cannot be- 
come self-righteous in their contempt for the morally weak. 
Every welfare movement for whites must become a welfare move- 
ment for Negroes as well. This interest in the whole will keep us 


* Educational Psychology, Vol. III, p. 311. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 367 


from dying with the dry rot of complacency. God has put upon 
the religious, educational, and social workers of both races of the 
South a tremendous load of responsibility ; but by His help we will 
carry it like men, and be all the stronger because of our manly 
exertion.” 7° 


The problem of adequate racial education in the South is in 
part a financial problem. The school funds have been inadequate 
and the Negro children have suffered in the distribution. “In 
1909 the Southern Educational Association made open acknowl- 
edgment of the existence of this evil in the following demand: 
‘We insist upon such an equitable distribution of the school funds 
that all the youth of the Negro race shall have at least an oppor- 
tunity to receive the elementary education provided by the State.’ 
In appealing for a ‘larger share’ of the school funds for the 
Negro, the University Race Commission, a body of Southern 
white men, recognised the existence of the evil by saying that 
‘ The inadequate provision for the education of the Negro is more 
than an injustice to him; it is an injury to the white man.’ 

“Here are certain figures based on the report of the United 
States Bureau of Education for 1916 on Negro education (No. 
39, Volumes 1 and 2); and the Negro Yearbook of 1918-1919, 
which show how grave has been the handicap under which Negro 
children in the South labour, and concerning and against which 
the Southern white men quoted above have protested. 


“ ANNUAL PER CAPITA EXPENDITURES PER CHILD OF SCHOOL 
AGE IN CERTAIN STATES. 


Of Of Of Of 
Popu- Appro- Popu- Appro- 
lation priations lation priations 
For For Whites Whites Negroes Negroes 
Whites Negroes were receive were _ receive 
Wiabataas vs). $11.21,. $2.00) 575% 899%!) 42'59 «11% 
mrkansas i N2/.): 9.07 4.14 71.8 84 28.1 16 
District of Co- 
Tremblant 26 G33:00 8 32.000 7L3 70 28.5 27 


Delaware ..... DS ee S25) 84-6 91 15.4 9 


® The South Mobilising for Soctal Service, p. 359 f. 


368 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Of Of Of Of 
Popu- Appro- Popu- Appro- 
lation priations lation priations 
For For Whites Whites Negroes Negroes 
Whites Negroes were receive were receive 
LOFIOA in ei ae $19.23 $2.44 58.9% 926% 41% 74% 
Georgia .)..... 1816 2.59. 54.9) 1 87) 45 a 
Kentucky: dau 11.43 9.70 88.6 91 11.4 9 
Lousiana 4 Ve Oech wl Luo Oi 92.6 43.1 7.4 
Maryland? 34.) 14.63 7.04 82.0 90.5 17.9 9.5 
Mississippi .... aa WEIN Bie Oe FG Ni 80 56.2 20 
NUISSOT TT iain a wee Out O.00) te 96.2 4.8 3.8 
North Carolina. 9.64 3.70 68 85 31.6 15 
Oklahoma ci. 2. ee AoO mil T S20 S72 96.8 8.3 Bi 
South .Garolina’ yi 18 OF Wid 23 Aas 89 bo 11 
Tennessee ......) 1144 5:76 78.3 88 217 12 
(DE RASNiS Clete D000) 10.90 82.2 88 7:7 12 
Niivotaia Fe 14.08 4.13 67.4 87 32.6 13 
West Virginia.. 17.80 17.00 94.7 95 5.3 5 


“Since these figures were compiled there has been some no- 
table progress made in curing some of these inequalities; but 
the general relative proportions have not yet been seriously 
changed.77:41 

It is argued that the Negroes receive a larger proportion of 
school funds than they pay of the taxes. Probably, but it was 
their labour in large part which created the wealth which paid the 
rest of the taxes. In any case it is true that the resources have 
been inadequate and it is a fair question whether the rest of the 
nation has not left too heavy a burden in this matter to be borne 
by the South alone. For the advancement of the Negro race is 
the concern of the whole nation. 

The newspapers of the South are taking an enlightened leader- 
ship in the movement for good will and fair dealing, especially in 
education. The example of fifty editors of leading papers in Vir- 
ginia has been followed by editors of daily papers in six other 


1 Fisk University News, Oct., 1922, p. 2. For a courageous and honest 
discussion of the situation in our southern states see the Arkansas Survey 
Report made by the Federal Bureau of Education at the request of the 
Honourary Educational Commission appointed by Governor McRae, of 
Arkansas, in 1921. Chapter X of the report, dealing with the Negro 
public schools, is printed in Fisk University News, Dec., 1922, pp. 8-15. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 369 


southern states. In a signed statement they ask for mutual help- 
fulness and co-operation between the white and coloured people 
in the South, for adequate educational advantages for coloured 
people, for equality before the law, and for abolition of mob 
violence. They stress particularly the influence of published 
news, saying, 


“The Negroes of the South are largely dependent upon the 
white press for current news of the day. It would be well if even 
greater effort was made to publish news of a character which is 
creditable to the Negro, showing his development as a people 
along desirable lines. This would stimulate him to try to attain 
to a higher standard of living. 

“Tt is a generally accepted fact that in both races if the entire 
mass were educated industrial problems would adjust themselves 
automatically and the less fit of either race would find the work 
and place for which he was best equipped. It has been authori- 
tatively stated that the Negro demand would absorb all teachers, 
preachers, physicians and lawyers the schools may turn out. ay 
In the harmonious co-operation of the thoughtful and exemplary 
men and women of both races lies the prospect of larger under- 
standing and better inter-racial relations.” 


(5) The Negro situation in the United States, both in the South 
and in the North, has been radically altered by the startling re- 
distribution of the race, and by the steady decrease of the Negro 
population in proportion to the white. The Negro now represents 
one-tenth of the total population. A hundred years ago he was 
one-fifth. Even the steadily improving hygienic conditions are not 
sufficing to offset the death rate in the Negro population. A 
generation or two ago the South had a Negro population in some 
states equalling and in South Carolina and Mississippi exceeding 
the white population. In the sixteen states and the District of 
Columbia, which are included by the Government Census in the 
South Atlantic, East South Central and West South Central di- 
visions, the total white population in 1860 was 7,033,973, and the 
total Negro population was 4,097,111. In 1920 the white popu- 


™ Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department, Information 
Service, Jan. 12, 1924, p. 4. 


370 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


lation in the same states was 24,132,214 and the Negro population 
8,912,231. In other words, the white population multiplied three | 
and one-half times, while the Negro population a little more than 
doubled. In separate states the change has been even more start- 
ling. In 1860 in Florida the Negro population nearly equalled the 
white; in 1920 the whites were nearly double the Negroes. In 
1860 in South Carolina the Negroes were one-third more than the 
white; in 1920 they were about equal, and on April 17, 1923, for 
the first time in a century, the whites outnumbered the Negroes. 
The movement of Negroes from the South had been especially 
rapid in the last decade. Until 1910 each decade showed an in- 
crease of Negro population in every southern state, but between 
1910 and 1920 the Negro population diminished in Alabama, Dela- 
ware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. In the na- 
tion as a whole the Negro element, which was 16% in 1860, sank 
to 11% in 1920. In other words, one of the most conspicuous ele- 
ments in the Negro problem fifty years ago has disappeared. 
Then it was predicted that the rate of the Negro increase was so 
great that in a few years the South certainly and in a little longer 
time the nation would be engulfed in an overwhelming Negro 
numerical ascendency. Out of this idea grew the fear which 
tainted the whole atmosphere in which the race question had to be 
dealt with. Already one can see the new aspect which the arith- 
metic of the Census has given to the entire discussion. 

And the situation in the North has changed also. The decade 
from 1910 to 1920 has seen an acceleration of the movement of 
Negroes into almost all the northern states. In Illinois the num- 
ber advanced in this decade from 109,049 to 182,274; in Indiana 
from 60,320 to 80,810; in Ohio from 111,452 to 186,187 ; in Mich- 
igan from 17,115 to 60,082; in New York from 134,191 to 198,- 
483; and in Pennsylvania from 193,919 to 284,568. There are 
now more Negroes in Pennsylvania than in Kentucky, Mary- 
land or Missouri. The growth of Negro population far ex- 
ceeded the growth during the preceding decade and surpassed 
in ratio the white growth. Great Negro communities grew up 
in cities like Detroit and Indianapolis, which had never before 
had a Negro problem. ‘The presence of Negro masses which 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 371 


had constituted the gravamen of the problem in the South and 
which the North had never known now brings the whole problem 
home to it.?8 

Two questions arise from this movement. What is its cause? 
What will be the effect? The cause is twofold, social and eco- 
nomic. A committee of representative Negroes of Jackson, 
Miss., stated the social reasons to their white fellow citizens as 
follows: 


“Having been informed that the object of your meeting is to 
take steps to try to stay the present exodus of Negroes from the 
State of Mississippi and being ourselves property holders, citizens 
of the State and most deeply interested in the future welfare of 
the commonwealth, realising that anything that is detrimental to 
the common good of the State is equally detrimental to us, and 
being Negro citizens ourselves, we beg to submit the following as 
a few of the many reasons which cause the Negro to be so easily 
induced to leave his native State: 

“(1) The Negro feels that his life is not safe in Mississippi, 
and that it may be taken with impunity at any time upon the slight- 
est pretext or provocation, by a white man. 

“(2) The record filibuster, vote and defeat by the Southern 
representation in the last Congress of the Dyer anti-lynching bill 
has caused the Negro to believe that the South is irrevocably de- 
termined to perpetuate therein lynch-law and mob violence. 

“(3) The Negro has generally despaired of obtaining his rights 
as a citizen in this section. He has lost faith, and a few of the 
following facts all tend to force him to this conclusion.” 4 


The statement proceeds to specify these: inequality before the law, 
unequal participation in the use of taxation for education for 
Negro children and training of Negro teachers, for reformation 
of Negro derelict youth, for care of the tuberculous and feeble- 
minded and the blind, unfair treatment of tenant farmers which 
holds them in serfdom for debt, discrimination against Negroes 
and Negro sections of towns, political disfranchisement of Negro 
boys who had gone to the war but “on their return home found 


% Public Affairs, Sept., 1923, art. by Phil H. Brown, “Southern Negroes 
Move North”; Current History, Sept., 1923, art. by Eric D. Walrond, 
“The Negro Exodus from the South.” 

* New York Evening Post, Jan. 14, 1923. 


372 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


themselves with no more voice in the State and Government which 
they fought to defend than the German enemy whom they helped 
to stay from American soil,” and exclusion from jury service. 
“In our humble judgment,” the statement said in conclusion, 
“there is no hope whatever of bringing back the Negroes who 
have already left the State, but the only hope now lies in taking 
the proper steps to retain as many as possible of those who are 
here. The Negroes feel that most of the foregoing facts are, in a 
measure, true throughout the South.” 7° 

Economic reasons were included in the statement of the Jackson 
Negroes. These have been interlaced with the others. Seeking 
freedom from restraints which were galling and which he hoped 
to find less in the North, the Negro was drawn also by the demand 
for labour and by the higher wages. For some years this type of 
workman has moved North in small numbers, but now the farm 
labour class also has begun to move. It is estimated that thirteen 
per cent. of the farm labour of Georgia and three per cent. from 
Alabama and South Carolina moved North in the twelve months 
ending in the spring of 1923.76 

Even if this movement could be checked, and some of the south- 
ern states are attempting to check it by legislative measures which 
cannot be effective, its effects have already made themselves felt. 
The South, feeling the mass of unskilled labour on which it has 
rested slipping from under, has been led to deal further with the 
cause of racial discontent. As the New York Times remarked in 
an editorial on “ Laws Against Negro Migration”: 


“The real solution lies in removing the incentive to migrate. 
Already various southern newspapers have pointed out this fact, 
and there are indications that the more enlightened opinion in the 
South appreciates it. It is generally recognised that, while higher 
wages have been the principal bait with which the Negroes have 
been induced to go North, there have been other reasons of a 
deeper sort which have had a great influence. These include the 


75 See also Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department, In- 
formation Service, March 15, 1924, art. “Inter-racial Sentiment in 
Mississippi.” 

The New York Times, April 23, 1923; New Haven Courier Journal, 
April 9, 1923. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3873 


hope of better social conditions, of better educational facilities for 
children, of better health and sanitary arrangements both in work 
and at home, and of better prospects for the ambitious. In an 
article printed in the New York Times in May, Mr. Robert R. 
Moton, President of Tuskegee Institute, mentioned among other 
factors in the South which encouraged migration the ever-present 
haunting fear of mob violence. There has also been a widely 
spread conviction among the coloured people that they are not 
accorded fair play. The editor of the Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer- 
Sun frankly admits that the white men know this and states that 
as a matter of fact the Negro does not receive justice in the same 
measure as the white man, and that he is given inadequate 
protection. 

“To keep the Negro at home can be effected by improving his 
condition rather than by legislating against his going. In other 
words, by removing those factors which at present incite him to 
leave, much more can be done than by punishing those who help 
him on his journey. In various important southern centres the 
truth of this is being realised, and even such organisations as local 
Chambers of Commerce and some of the civic associations have 
recommended acting accordingly, and urge giving the Negro bet- 
ter protection, improving his schools, and helping him rather than 
seeking to keep him down. The South wants the Negro, and, 
given equal treatment, the Negro prefers the South. Unless he 
receives this, however, no legislation nor fines nor attempts to 
prevent his learning where there is a labour market will stop his 
migrating.” 27 


The President of the Cotton Growers’ Association said recently 
in Charleston, “’The Negro can be kept on the cotton plantation 
by kindness and personal attention. The landowner needs to get 
on the job. . . . There has been a lack of brotherly feeling 
between the landlord and tenant largely because they rarely saw 
each other. Leaving the management of plantations to overseers 
is seldom satisfactory. We may soon have to come to a profit- 
sharing basis of dealing with plantation labour.” *% In other 
words, the old, old lesson, justice and brotherhood. And the 
South, the true South, perceives this and the communities which 


277The New York Times, July 21, 1923. 
78 Hederal Council Commission on the Church and Social Service, Re- 
search Department, Information Servicc, May 5, 1923, Nov. 3, 1923. 


374 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


act in justice and brotherhood are not afraid. In The Morning 
Herald, of Durham, N. C., Jan. 13, 1923, Mr. C. C. Spaulding, 
President, Mutual Life Insurance Company, a coloured business 
organisation of that city, speaking as a Negro for his group, de- 
scribes the favourable conditions in Durham where nearly 8,000 
Negroes live on “ peaceful and friendly terms with their white 
neighbours.” They find employment in tobacco factories and 
hosiery mills; the vote is not denied them because of colour; ade- 
quate educational opportunities are provided; they receive an 
honest hearing in the courts, and the white people of Durham 
show a desire “to make the Negro population a permanent and 
valuable part of its citizenry.”’ In such southern communities the 
Negro desires to remain. 

(6) We come now to the last and most difficult matter, social 
equality. What does this mean? Dr. Du Bois answered: 


“T mean no half-way measure; I mean full and fair equality. 
That is, the chance to obtain work regardless of colour, to aspire 
to position and preferment on the basis of desert alone, to have 
the right to use public conveniences, to enter public places of 
amusement on the same terms as other people, and to be received 
socially by such persons as might wish to receive them. These are 
not extravagant demands, and yet their granting means the abo- 
lition of the colour line. The question is: Can American Negroes 
hope to attain to this result?” 


And to this Mr. Stone replied: 


“With equal clearness and precision, and with full comprehen- 
sion of its larger meaning and significance and ultimate possibili- 
ties, the American white man answers the question in the language 
of another eminent American sociologist, Professor Edward A. 
Ross, in contrasting the attitudes of Anglo-Saxons and Latins 
toward other races on this continent: ‘The superiority of a race 
cannot be preserved without pride of blood and an uncompromis- 
ing attitude toward the lower races. . . . Whatever may be 
thought of the latter policy, the net result is that North America 
from the Behring Sea to the Rio Grande is dedicated to the high- 
est type of civilisation; while for centuries the rest of our hemis- 
phere will drag the ball and chain of hybridism.’ And thus the 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3875 


issue is joined. And thus also perhaps we find an answer to our 
Own question, whether racial friction in this country is increasing 
and inevitable.” 29 


Such an apparent deadlock would seem to promise nothing but 
war, a growing demand and a determined denial. But these words 
were written twenty years ago, and while the race problem is here 
as really as then and while the new conditions have aggravated 
the situation, we are nevertheless more hopeful of the solution of 
the problem than we have ever been. The matter of social equal- 
ity does not so greatly trouble us. We are coming to see the race 
problems in far larger terms than the old issue of “ social equal- 
ity’ implied. “Social equality,” says Dr. Moton, “is a myth 
that makes trouble. It is a smoke screen and barrage that is often 
used by politicians. Social equality, as white people understand 
that term, is not wanted by coloured people, who would rather be 
with one another than with anybody else. All that coloured people 
ask for is the fair execution of the law.” °° The issue of social 
equality is of diminishing significance as the conception of true 
race personality and integrity and true inter-racial brotherhood 
and service comes into view.*! In the first place social equality 
cannot be defined. It cannot be defined as between individuals, 


*® Stone, The American Race Problem, p. 240 f. 

® Racial Relations and the Christian Ideal, p. 17. 

* The resolutions adopted by the Inter-racial Conference held in Bir- 
mingham, Alabama, Jan. 22, 1924, indicate this: 


y, 

“That the race problem is not one of social equality, but a human prob- 
lem which can best be solved by thoughtful consideration of definite needs 
for the advantages of both races, and since neither race, the black any more 
than the white, wishes racial amalgamation, the misleading phrase ‘ social 
equality’ should no longer be permitted to hold back the co-operation of 
the white people from giving fair life opportunity to the Negro. 


Ly! 
“Race relations in Alabama are improving, respect for law and order is 
growing and no lynchings are charged to this State during the last year. 
Tit. 


“Since the South will perhaps always remain the residence of the ma- 
jority of the Negro race the mutual inter-dependence of the two races must 
be continually kept in mind. 


376 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


still less as between races. It is a phrase readily used because it | 
looks clear and plain, but the moment it is examined it crumbles 
away. Men are not socially equal because they go to the same 
theatre or eat in the same hotel. In the second place what sub- 
stance the phrase really signifies cannot be demanded. If it is 
felt and accorded it is real. If it is not felt and accorded, the 
demand cannot secure it and any one demanding it would not be 
capable of receiving it. He might be given its form, but its real- 
ity can never be possessed by any one who is capable of conceiving 
it as a demandable thing. All this is absolutely true of social 
equality without regard to race, and it is true of it with regard 
to race. 

What we need to be rid of is all race servility and race arro- 
gance, all discrimination for or against men on arbitrary and 
unreal grounds, all racial demand and racial assertion, all impa- 
tience and injustice. There are multitudes of men and women 
who are true friends across the line of race. They understand 
and respect one another. They are working together with a unity 


IV. 


“We recommend that new school buildings for coloured people be lo- 
cated with a view to healthy, sanitary surroundings, that school funds be 
equitably divided, and that opportunity be given for the adequate training 
of teachers for coloured schools. 


V. 


“That in every community effort be made to apportion to each race a 
just share of the comforts and benefits derived from facilities for recre- 
ation, good housing, sanitation, sewerage and street lighting and other 
necessities which contribute to better living conditions. 


VI. 


“We affirm our belief that a righteous settlement of race relations 
everywhere may be found through the application of the principle of Chris- 
tianity and we therefore recommend that church groups make careful and 
sympathetic study of conditions surrounding the Negro home, church and 
school, using the knowledge thus gained to quicken the public conscience 
concerning responsibility for the conditions. 


VII. 

“ Realising the large part played by racial suspicion and hatred in multi- 
plying stubborn world problems, this Inter-Racial Conference desires to 
make every possible contribution to the right adjustment of our own racial 
difficulties in order that our Christian civilisation may not be discredited 
throughout the world.”—(Birmingham Reporter, Jan. 26, 1924.) 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 377 


of purpose and spirit in which there is no colour line nor any 
wraith of a colour line. They have transcended the old issues and 
know in their hearts that for them the new day has come. Our 
hope is in the increase of this company and their triumph over the 
agitators, the men of both races who use race to confirm or to 
refute race and who then use both the confirmation and the refu- 
tation as a means of intensifying race assertion or authority. 
Once again, the old and only solution, justice and brotherhood, 
justice to each race and to all the trusts and values of each race 
and brotherhood within and across all the races, the maintenance 
by each race of its self-respect and racial dignity, and the unity 
of all races in the fulfillment of their distinct and their common 
tasks. President Harding put it all in a few words spoken to the 
third annual meeting of the National American Council, comment- 
ing upon one phrase in the preamble of the Constitution of the 
United States: 


“Consider one phrase in the preamble: ‘ To establish justice.’ 
In our mechanism of government, we have set up an elaborate 
organisation to insure this: the Federal and State Judicial systems. 
But the courts cannot insure equal justice to all the community if 
some individuals shall strive for special privileges for themselves, 
or seek to establish subtle forms of injustice not specifically pro- 
hibited by the letter of law. The task of the courts will be diffi- 
cult, slow, sometimes impossible, unless citizens subject to their 
jurisdiction are sincerely desirous to do justice and to see it done 
in the affairs of day-by-day life. 

“Thus the immediate and continuing opportunity for every 
citizen to contribute toward the accomplishment of this particular 
objective by the nation as a whole, lies in so guiding one’s per- 
sonal affairs that they shall fall into coincidence with this injunc- 
tion ‘to establish justice.’ If we sincerely wish to leave a better 
and a greater nation to the next generation, to bequeath institu- 
tions better adapted to accomplish the great aim of social organ- 
isation, we shall accomplish these things by adhering in our daily 
conduct to the rule of seeking and doing justice.” 


No better counsel has been given to both races as they face their 
common problem than the Recommendations of the Chicago Com- 
mission on Race Relations appointed after the Chicago race riots 


378 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


of 1919. A few of the more significant of the fifty-nine recom- 
mendations may be cited: 


INTER-RACIAL TOLERANCE. 


27. Weare convinced (a) that measures involving or approach- 
ing deportation or segregation are illegal, impracticable and cannot 
solve, but would accentuate, the race problem and postpone its 
just and orderly solution by the process of adjustment; (b) that 
the moral responsibility for race rioting does not rest upon hood- 
lums alone, but also upon all citizens, white or black, who sanction 
force or violence in inter-racial relations or who do not condemn 
and combat the spirit of racial hatred thus expressed; (c) that 
race friction and antagonism are largely due to the fact that each 
race too readily misunderstands and misinterprets the other’s con- 
duct and aspirations. 

We therefore urge upon all citizens, white and Negro, active 
opposition to the employment of force or violence in inter-racial 
relations and to the spirit of antagonism and hatred. We recom- 
mend dispassionate, intelligent, and sympathetic consideration by 
each race of the other’s needs and aims; we also recommend the 
dissemination of proved or trustworthy information about all 
phases of race relations as a useful means toward effecting peace- 
ful racial adjustment. 

28. Since rumour, usually groundless, is a prolific source of 
racial bitterness and strife, we warn both whites and Negroes 
against the acceptance or circulation by either of reports about 
the other whose truth has not been fully established. We urge all 
citizens, white and Negro, vigourously to oppose all propaganda 
of malicious or selfish origin which would tend to excite race 
prejudice. 

29. We recommend race contacts in cultural and co-operative 
efforts as tending strongly to mutual understanding and the pro- 
motion of good race relations. 


FostERING RAcE ANTAGONISM. 
30. We condemn the provocation or fostering of race antagon- 
ism by associations or organisations ostensibly founded or con- 


ducted for purposes of patriotism or local improvements or 
the like. 


INFORMATION ABout NEGROES. 


36. We recommend that white persons seek information from 
responsible and representative Negroes as the basis of their judg- 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 379 


ments about Negro traits, characteristics, and tendencies, and 
thereby counteract the common disposition, arising from erron- 
eous tradition and literature, to regard all Negroes as belonging 
to one homogeneous group and as being inferior in mentality and 
morality, given to emotionalism, and having an innate tendency 
toward crime, especially sex crime. 


RAcIAL DOCTRINES, 


37. We recommend to Negroes the promulgation of sound 
racial doctrines among the uneducated members of their group, 
and the discouragement of propaganda and agitators seeking to 
influence racial animosity and incite Negroes to violence. 


RACE PRIDE. 


42. While we recognise the propriety and social values of race 
pride among Negroes, we warn them that thinking and talking 
too much in terms of race alone is calculated to promote separa- 
tion of race interests and thereby to interfere with racial 
adjustment. 


ATTITUDE TowArRD NEGRO WorKERS. 


43. We have found that in struggles between capital and labour 
Negro workers are in a position dangerous to themselves and to 
peaceful relations between the races, whether the issues involve 
their use by employers to undermine wage standards or break 
strikes, or efforts by organised labour to keep them out of certain 
trades while refusing to admit them to membership in the union 
in such trades. We feel that unnecessary racial bitterness is pro- 
voked by such treatment of Negro workers, that racial prejudice 
is played upon by both parties, and that through such practices 
injury comes, not alone to Negroes, but to employers and labour 
organisations as well. 

We therefore recommend to employers that they deal with 
Negroes as workmen on the same plane as white workers; and to 
labour unions that they admit Negroes as workmen on the same 
plane as white workers; and to labour unions that they admit 
Negroes to full membership whenever they apply for it and pos- 
sess the qualifications required of white workers. 

46. We have found.that Negroes are denied equal opportunity 
with whites for advancement and promotion where they are em- 
ployed. As a measure of justice we urge that Negroes be em- 
ployed, advanced, and promoted according to their capacities and 


380 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


proved merit. We call to the attention of those concerned the 
high qualifications of many Negro workers in sleeping-car and 
dining-car service and recommend that when they deserve it and 
the opportunity offers, they be made eligible for promotion to 
positions as conductors and stewards. 


SEPARATE LABOUR UNIONS. 


50. We strongly condemn the efforts of self-seeking agitators, 
Negro or white, who use race sentiment to establish separate 
unions in trades where existing unions admit Negroes to equal 
membership with whites. 


RELATIONS WITH UNIONS. 


51. We recommend that qualified Negro workers desiring mem- 
bership in labour organisations join unions which admit both 
races equally, instead of organising separate Negro labour unions. 


Eguay, Ricuts In Pusric PLaces. 


57. We point out that Negroes are entitled by law to the same 
treatment as other persons in restaurants, theaters, stores, and 
other places of public: accommodation, and we urge that owners 
and managers of such places govern their policies and actions and 
their employees accordingly.*” 


This is the fullest and most courageous discussion of the Negro 
problem which has appeared. 

If we fail in America to solve this problem of relation between 
the white and black races it will be only one more proof of the 
incapacity and weakness wrought in man by sin. The guilt of 
failure will be wholly and clearly our own. 

2. Immigration and the race problem. The population of the 
48 States and the District of Columbia in 1920 was 105,710,620. 
Of these more than one-half, 58,421,957, were native white of 
white parentage; more than one-fifth, 22,686,204, were native 
white of foreign or mixed parentage; one-eighth, 13,712,754, 
were foreign-born white; one-tenth, 10,463,131, were Negroes. 


Report of Commission, The Negro in Chicago, pp. 640-651. 


os —_— ~~ 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 381 


The foreign born population and the total population at each 
decennial census were as follows: 


Total 
Foreign Born Population Per cent, 
(iret ath edad Mat iad 4,138,697 31,443,321 13 
BOs) man nuie teh S5b/2e9 38,538,371 14.4 
| hete: BATE ie. 2 Ss ia 6,679,943 50,155,783 13 
eS? BGR Mt aloes 9,249,560 62,947,714 14.6 
CE eae ae Ne at at 10,341,276 75,994,575 13.6 
(EL elle as 13,515,886 91,972,266 14.7 
TS a! w dg est adi ale la 13,712,754 105,710,620 1dcZ 


It is apparent at once that the ratio of foreign born has changed 
only slightly. The foreign born population in 1900 was 13.6 per 
cent. of the whole and in 1910 it was 14.7 per cent. and in 1920 
it was 13.2. 

On the other hand the character of the races to be assimilated 
has changed from 1890 to 1910 and again from 1910 to 1920, as 
the following table of the foreign born shows: 


Per cent. Per cent. 
1890 1910 in 1910 1920 in 1920 
ustria® oc we 241 377i £17 4:073 8.8 575,625 4.2 
England? 32... :; 909,092 876,455 6.6 812,828 5.9 
OMAN Vile iiiLiA Or ORAL Wek LOL poi Od 0d 080,102) 5 12.3 
Greece ...... 1,887 101,264 0.8 175,972 is: 
Hungary 62,435 495,600 Swi 397,282 2.9 
frejatid®’ .*,°.°." LO Use FL Soa loot LOs hie TOSAZS53 76 
Testy ee ak 18255800 WH 343,0709" LOT 1610) L098. EE? 
Mexico: «a 77,853 219,802 1.6 478,383 3:5 
Norway «aad vo2e,002 403,858 3 363,862 2h 
Russia and 
Pinkand 12. 162,044 ~ .1;732,421°" 13. POSS roe Lo 
scotland. ¢..) 242,231 261,034 2: 254,567 1.9 
Sweden ..... 478,041 665,183 5) 625,580 4.6 
Whales: satin. 100,079 82,479 8 67,066 5 


The number of English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh-born people 
in the United States has decreased in each period. The number of 
Greeks, Italians and Mexicans has increased. The south-eastern 


382 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and eastern Europeans who leaped ahead from 1890 to 1910 have 
fallen off slightly. The effects of the war are evident, especially 
on the Germans, Austrians and the Hungarians. The figures show 
that the races from north Europe which are more easily as- 
similable and more available to aid in the process of assimilation 
~ have fallen off steadily, while the dissimilar and less assimilable 
races of southern and eastern Europe which sprang forward so 
rapidly between 1890 and 1910 have dropped between 1910 and 
1920. What has been gained in the probability of successful as- 
similation, in the latter case by the reduction of the problem, seems 
to have been about offset in the percentages by the loss in the 
former case. Most of those who return to Europe, however, are 
from southern Europe. In 1923, 6,054 English immigrants came 
and 7,979 left, but 39,226 southern Italians came and 21,029 went 
back. It is interesting to note the continued Italian gain and the 
steady Irish decline. In the fiscal year ending in 1923, the largest 
number of aliens admitted to the United States were Germans, 
65,543. Others in large numbers were Mexicans, 62,709; English, 
60,524; Hebrews, 49,719; south Italians, 39,226; Scotch, 38,627 ; 
Scandinavians, 37,630; French, 34,731; Irish, 30,386. The largest 
number of those who left to return to their own countries were 
south Italians, 21,029.33 Professor Conklin is ‘‘ certain that our 
general level of intelligence has been going down ever since the 
great influx of immigration from southern and eastern Europe 
began thirty or forty years ago,” and he quotes Dr. C. C. Brigham 
as estimating after “a most careful study ” that “since 1901 we 
have added to our population more than two million white immi- 
grants below the average Negro in intelligence.” Professor Conk- 
lin holds that the chief menace is not the foreign-born, but their 
children. Only 725 out of 15,656 inmates of State and Federal 
institutions for feeble-minded were foreign-born, but 5,574 of 
those inmates were the children of foreign-born parents.** In 
1910 there were 13,345,545 foreign-born whites in the United 
States and 12,916,311 of foreign white parentage and 5,981,526 
of mixed native and foreign white parentage, a total of 32,243,382. 


% The New York Times, Aug. 21, 1923. 
* The American Legion Weekly, Aug. Sy 1923, art. “ The Price We Pay.” 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 383 


In 1920 about 34% of our population consisted of foreign-born 
and their children. Yet this 34% furnished 55% of the insane, 
46% of the paupers and 40% of the feeble-minded. On the other 
hand a report in the American Journal of Soctology finds “ that 
the children of mixed foreign and native parentage have greater 
vitality than the children of native stock.” *° It is clear that we 
have not all the facts yet for a judgment. For it cannot be said 
that we have yet done our full duty in educating and helping 
these children. What they are is in part our fault. And after 
all, most of us are the children of foreign-born or their children’s 
children. 

The problem has been modified also by the redistribution of 
immigration among the states. It is interesting to note the facts 
in a few races. The states which contain most English born in 
order are as follows: New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, 
California, Illinois and New Jersey. The states which contain 
most Irish born in order are, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsyl- 
vania, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut. The states which con- 
tain most German born are in order, New York, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey. The Poles are 
chiefly, in order, in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, 
New Jersey and Ohio; the Russians, in New York (529,240), 
Pennsylvania, Illinois and Massachusetts; the Italians, in New 
York (545,173), Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illi- 
nois and California. 

Valuable studies have been made of various races in the New 
Americans Series published through the Home Missions Council, 
covering thus far the Czecho-Slovaks in America, the Poles, the 
Russians and Ruthenians, the Italians and the Greeks.2® No ade- 
quate study has yet been made, however, of the intermixture of 
racial strains in the United States. We know that since 1841 the 
proportion of southern and eastern European immigrants has risen 
steadily, while the proportion from northern and western Europe 
declined. Croxton and Lauck presented the following table at the 
Universal Races Congress in 1911: 


%® New York Evening Post, Jan. 3, 1923. 
8 See also Shriver, Immigrant Forces, p. 43. 


384 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Per Cen’t. From 





Northern 
Yearending Total Number and Western Southernand Other Speci- 
June 30th. of Immigrants Europe Eastern Europe fied Countries 
1820-1830 124,640 86.5 3.4 10.1 
1831-1840 528.721 92.3 12 6.5 
1841-1850 1,604,805 95.9 0.4 mA 
1851-1860 2,648,912 94.6 0.9 44 
1861-1870 2,309,878 89.2 1.6 9.2 
1871-1880 2,812,191 TOT. Zit 19.2 
1881-1890 5,246,613 72.0 18.3 9.7 
1891-1900 3,687,564 44.8 52.8 2:5 
1901-1910 8,795,386 2155 719 6.3 


This table does not indicate how many immigrants returned to 
Europe (it was one-third for the five years ending June 30, 1912), 
and we know that the number going back to the South and East 
was a larger percentage than the number going back to the West 
and North of Europe. But even so, a grave economic and social 
problem was left. Croxton and Lauck summed up their con- 
clusions as follows: 


“1. The extensive employment of southern and eastern Euro- 
peans has seriously affected the native American and older immi- 
grant employees from Great Britain and northern Europe by caus- 
ing displacements and by retarding advancement in rates of pay 
and improvement in conditions of employment. 


“2. Industrial efficiency among the recent immigrant wage- 
earners has been very slowly developed owing to their illiteracy 
and inability to speak English. 


‘3. For these same reasons the general progress toward assimi- 
lation and the attainment of American standards of work and 
living has also been very slow. 


“4. The conclusion of greatest significance developed by the 
general industrial investigation of the United States Immigration 
Commission is that the point of complete saturation has already 
been reached in the employment of recent immigrants in mining 
and manufacturing establishments. Owing to the rapid expansion 
in industry which has taken place during the past thirty years and 
the constantly increasing employment of southern and eastern 
Europeans, it has been impossible to assimilate the newcomers, 


eae ee eee ee ee 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 385 


politically or socially, or to educate them to American standards 
of compensation, efficiency, or conditions of employment.” *7 


This was in 1911. The War and the new restrictions upon im- 
migration have checked the flow of immigrants from all lands, 
and in 1921 the total incoming stream of alien immigrants num- 
bered 309,556 and of non-immigrants 150,487, as compared with 
1,218,480 in 1914; 298,826 in 1916; 110,618 in 1918; 430,001 in 
1920; and 1,285,349 in 1907. In 1923 the alien immigrant new- 
comers numbered 522,919, while 81,450 left the country to return 
to Europe. 

Current periodical literature supplies illustration of almost all 
conceivable views on the question of immigration and its restric- 
tion. Some would have it as nearly unrestricted as possible. 
Some would close the doors as tight as possible. Some would 
work with a quota principle, making immigration proportionate 
to the number of members of any race or nationality in this coun- 
try at the time of some specified census. And some specify the 
census of 1890, some the census of 1900 and some the census of 
1910 and some the census of 1920. The tables already given show 
how different results these different census returns would yield. 
Some would add other elements to the sifting process than mere 
numerical quota, such as racial kinship, moral and economic 
worthfulness, demonstrated assimilability, literacy, eugenic prin- 
ciples, etc. Some would frankly face the issue between the north 
European Protestant culture and the south European Roman 
Catholic or east European Greek Catholic, and seek to perpetuate 
the early American tradition, although there is difference of opin- 
ion also as to what this tradition was.** | 

Mr. E. V. Wilcox, in The Country Gentleman, Nov. 24, 1923, 


7 Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 222. 

EF . g., New York Times, May 25, 1923, “ Welcome Immigration”; Dec. 
3, 1923, “Pictures Pilgrims Facing Quota Law”; Jan. 26, 1924, “Curb 
Aliens to Save Nation, Curran asks”; Feb. 10, 1924, “ Like-Minded or 
Well Born”; Feb. 16, 1924, “ Eugenics and Immigration”; Feb. 28, 1924, 
“ Assails Alien Quota Basis”; March 1, 1924, “ Eliminating the 1890 Cen- 
sus,” “Quotas for Immigration,” etc., etc. See also the suggestive series 
of articles in World’s Work beginning Nov., 1923, “The Immigration 
Peril,” by Gino Speranza. 


386 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


objects to the arguments for more immigration which rest on the 
ground that cheaper labour means lower costs and more mouths 
to feed and therefore better markets for the farmer. He holds 
that more immigration means more financial drain. 


‘Quoting from a study made jointly by the Department of - 


Commerce and Harvard University he states that the foreign 
born in this country sent $400,000,000 abroad during the last fiscal 
year. This sum, the expenses of our tourists in Europe, our gifts 
for relief purposes and other items not only wipe out the trade 
balance in our favour, but it even appears that Europe ‘in 1922 
got the better of us by about $500,000,000.2 Mr. Wilcox says, 
‘We are supporting millions of Europe’s paupers.’ He even 
claims that if more immigrants came they would live ‘as far as 
possible on foreign products.’ Therefore, he urges that ‘ restric- 
tion laws, even if faulty, are a boon to farmers.’ ” °° 


Dr. Sidney L. Gulick has worked out as thoughtfully as any 
one a reasonable, and, as he believes, a Christian basis of regulated 
immigration, as follows: 


“There are certain fundamental principles that should charac- 
terise any immigration law which seeks to limit the numbers of 
aliens entering the United States. Among them are: 

1. “Only so many aliens coming for permanent residence in 
the United States should be admitted as we have good reason to 
believe can be wholesomely assimilated and incorporated into our 
body politic. 

2. “ This number differs with different peoples and races and 
may be broadly estimated by noting the reactions of those already 
among us to our national, social and economic conditions. 

3. “ The determination of this number should be made in the 
light of sound sociological, psychological and economic principles 
as they reveal themselves in objective verifiable facts. 

4. “Even from peoples that are highly assimilable, no more 
should be admitted year by year than can be wholesomely incor- 
porated into our industrial system. It is vital that American 
standards of wages and living for our industrial workers be 
maintained. 


*° Quoted in Federal Council of the Churches, Research Department, Jn- 
formation Service, Feb. 9, 1924, p. 4. See also Information Service, March 
1, 1924, art. “ American Immigration Policy.” 


Eee ee eee 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3287 


5. “ The determination of the number of immigrants to be ad- 
mitted annually should be free from personal bias or race 
prejudice, 

“If these principles are correct, then it is a mistake to base the 
quota of permissible immigration from any given people on the 
number of that people that happened to be in the United States at 
the time of a given census. Such a method completely ignores 
vital questions regarding assimilability and economic and industrial 
conditions. 

“ There are two objective criteria of wholesome assimilation : 

1, “ Naturalisation: This shows whether or not the alien is 
wholeheartedly severing his connection with his native land and 
throwing in his lot with us. It shows the degree of his political 
assimilation. Long-continued allegiance to a foreign government 
by a large proportion of any given people residing among us 
shows certain mental traits undesirable from the American 
standpoint. 

2. “ American-born children of foreign parentage: These are 
American citizens and if educated in our public schools are pretty 
thoroughly assimilated. This principle may be still more closely 
defined. The intermarriage of the foreign-born of a given race or 
people with native Americans proves a high degree of social 
assimilability and tends to the elimination of hyphenated citizen- 
ship and of race-group consciousness. Intermarriage across lines 
of nationality tends to produce a homogeneous people. The num- 
ber of children, therefore, of ‘ foreign stock’ one of whose parents 
is native-born is a valuable objective criterion of the assimilabil- 
ity of the race of that foreign-born parent. 

“The sociologically correct, objective basis, therefore, for the 
calculation of the quota of immigrants for each people should be: 

1. “ The number of that people in the United States who have 
become American citizens by naturalisation, plus 

2. “ The number of American-born children of that people only 
one of whose parents is foreign-born. 

“In order, moreover, to be thoroughly scientific and impartial, 
the basic figures to be used should be those of the latest available 
census. 

“No attempt has been made to work out a full table of quotas 
on these principles, but by way of illustration, a few examples, 
making use of the census of 1920, have been calculated. 

“On account of a certain lack of parallelism of the tables the 
figures here given are not exact. They do, however, give a fairly 
correct view of the statistical results of the principles advocated. 


388 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Naturalized Plus American- Permissible 
Mother Tongue Born Children, One Parent Immigration Quotas of the 














Groups Only Foreign-Born (2%) Present Law 
English-Celtic .... 4,522,707 90,454 77 342 
CFerMAnIC yeeros 3,618,963 72,379 72,7007 
Scandinavian ..... 1,660,069 31,201 37,863 
Latin-Greek ...... 1,288,961 25,/79 61,645 
AVICHLEttiCN mie sy 462,495 9,249 81,814 

229,062 331,441 
Thalys ta vet, wou we 622,014 12,440 42,057 
Germany Auovee G2 5.047 66,466 67,607 
Denmarlo ys). 3/0. en N56. 742 10,734 5,619 


“T have provisionally used 2 per cent. for estimating the quotas. 
Whether or not this is the best percentage I do not undertake to 
say. I believe personally that it would be wiser for Congress to 
adopt the general principles to govern immigration and to deter- 
mine certain maximum permissible quotas and then to leave to an 
Immigration Board the final determination of the actual numbers 
—which may change from year to year according to economic 
conditions—together with many other matters of detail of 
administration. 

“The United States needs a flexible law administered in the 
light of changing conditions without fresh Congressional legisla- 
tion; frequent emergency legislation to meet successive crises 
should be avoided just so far as is possible.” 


The nation has slowly come to the purpose of trying at least so 
to control immigration and so to care for what is admitted that 
the process of assimilation can operate efficiently and all races be 
welded together harmoniously into one national life. Both this 
purpose and the effect of measures then in force were described by 
Mr. Husband as Commissioner General of Immigration, in an 
address in New York on April 3, 1923. He recognised that the 
quota law is an experiment in race assimilation, an attempt to 
admit each year a certain percentage of the people of any given 
nationality already in the country on the theory that such a per- 
centage could be wrought into the common life of the nation, 
and added: 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 389 


“Immigrants from the south and east of Europe have not 
demonstrated that they can be readily assimilated into the popu- 
lation of the United States in the sense that the old type of 
immigrants could. With their coming there were fears and specu- 
lation on the part of the American people. 

“The quota law has produced hardship, but it has realised in 
a way the principle upon which an immigration law may be made 
checking the new immigration. There were probably a quarter of 
a million people in the countries of southern and eastern Europe 
in the last year who would have come to America but for the 
quota law. 

“We are now getting from the old sources, England, Ireland, 
Scandinavia, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, the same class 
of immigration as before. The British quota will be exhausted in 
May and the Swedish quota in June. The demand here has been 
so great that the old-time immigration is coming to us again, and 
we are receiving a class of immigrants who are just as good, if 
not superior to those who came after 1852. 

“We are getting into this country some of the finest people in 
the world. If that is so, the quota law is an unqualified success. 
It is not perfect and it ought to be amended, but it is a corner- 
stone upon which a future immigration policy can be framed.” 


Mr. Husband said an investigation had shown that of the people 
coming from the south and east of Europe less than 50 per cent., 
and in some cases as low as 30 per cent. had become naturalised 
in that period, whereas of the old type of immigrants of the north 
and west of Europe more than 50 per cent., and in some instances 
85 per cent. had become naturalised.*° 

During the Congress of 1923-24 public opinion in America 
moved very rapidly and legislation was adopted stringently re- 
ducing the volume of immigration, retaining the quota principle 
but basing it on the census of 1890, with the result of curtailing 
the south European immigration and favouring the immigration 
from the northern Europen races. The general purpose of this 
legislation to safeguard the integrity and unity of the nation is 


© New York Times, April 4, 1923. For one of the best summaries of the 
issues involved in our present immigration problem, see The Congressional 
Digest, Vol. II, Nos. 10-11, July-August, 1923, “ America and Her Immi- 
grants.” See also Public Affairs, Dec., 1923, art. by W. H. Husband, 
“Immigration Up to Date,” and art. by E. J. Hemming, “The Problems of 
the Alien,” 


390 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


certainly sound. Some of its methods and even some of its prin- 
ciples, however, are sure to undergo revision. 

America has not solved the race problem yet in the case either 
of the Negro or of the immigrant, but real progress has been 
made toward its solution. The “melting pot” metaphor is at 
present a little discredited and it does not represent the mode of 
dealing with race relationships set forth in these studies. But the 
unity which it suggests, though still unattained, is nearer to us in 
the United States, in spite of the heterogeneity of our racial ele- 
ments, than in any other country in the world, and it is interesting 
to see the increasingly clear and steady recognition of the fact that 
our problem in America must be worked out under a rational and 
Christian conception of racial values and relationships. An edito- 
rial in The New York Times will suffice for illustration: 


“In formulating a permanent policy two considerations are of 
prime importance. The first is that the country has the right to 
say who shall and who shall not come in. It is not for any foreign 
country to determine our immigration policy. ‘The second is that 
the basis of restriction must be chosen with a view not to the in- 
terest of any group or groups in this country, whether racial or 
religious, but rather with a view to the country’s best interests as a 
whole. The great test is assimilability. Will the newcomers fit 
into American life readily? Is their culture sufficiently akin to 
our own to make it possible for them easily to take their place 
among us? ‘There is no question of ‘superior’ or ‘inferior’ 
races or of ‘ Nordics’ or of prejudice, or of racial egotism. Cer- 
tain groups not only do not fuse easily, but consistently endeavour 
to keep alive their racial distinctions when they settle among us. 
They perpetuate the ‘ hyphen’ which is but another way of saying 
that they seek to create a foreign block in our midst. 

“The more the population of the United States is recruited 
from divers racial groups, the more essential is it that all racial 
distinctions be eliminated. So long as racial consciousness is 
fostered, whether it be in the form of the dual loyalty preached 
by the representatives of certain nations, or in the banding to- 
gether of the foreign born or their descendants to further the po- 
litical or other interests of their group as a group, the fusing of 
the American nation will be delayed. Particularly true is this as 
bearing on immigration restrictions. A policy must be formed 
without discriminating unfairly against any given groups, but at 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3891 


the same time with regard to the interests only of the whole and 
not of any special part.” #4 


The good which we seek to attain will be brought steadily nearer 
if we will do our national, and as Christian churches our Chris- 
tian, duty toward all who come to us, (1) by a rational and hu- 
mane policy of assimilation untainted by the mania of war 
psychology, (2) by adequate education which will do for all our 
children what the army tests showed our education in the past 
has not done for the young men of the present generation, (3) by 
absolute and equal justice to all and by good will which will make 
race rioting and intimidation of aliens and their children impos- 
sible, (4) by proper selective processes which will bring to us the 
right elements to be wrought into the body of American life, (5) 
by preserving the real Christian character of our nation and its 
life and allowing those classes to go elsewhere which do not wish 
to become a part of a Christian nation or which are not willing to 
accept the authoritative declaration of the Supreme Court as to 
what is the true nature of our institutions and government,** (6) 
and by doing our duty to all who come in this regard, not by po- 
litical measures but by the persuasive and convincing service of 
the Christian Church. 

3. There are two particular racial issues involved in our gen- 
eral immigration problem, the Mexican and the Japanese. The 
figures already cited show that our Mexican population trebled 
between 1890 and 1910 and more than doubled between 1910 and 
1920, due to the unsettlement of Mexico and the security and in- 
dustrial opportunity here. Of the 478,382 Mexicans reported in 
1920, 249,652 were in Texas, 86,610 in California, and 60,325 in 
Arizona, In Texas they constituted one-tenth of the population 
and in Arizona not quite one-fifth. The total foreign born popu- 
lation of New York City is nearly two-fifths of the whole, and 
the children of foreign or mixed parentage are two-fifths more. 
In proportion, the Mexican element in the south-west is a far 


“The New York Times, March 1, 1924. Editorial, “ Eliminating the 1890 
Census.” 
See Justice Brewer’s little book, The United States a Christian Nation, 


392 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


simpler problem with the same simple solution, justice and broth- 
erhood, involving the adequate provision of facilities for education 
and race advancement. 

The Japanese problem has been the most perplexing of all, and 
the facts of the case and the right solution have been matter of 
dispute. The Chinese problem would be joined to the Japanese 
but for the acceptance, for the present at least, by China of the 
principle of race discrimination and the earnest rejection of that 
principle by Japan. 

As to the number and increase of the Japanese in the United 
States, there can be no reasonable disagreement. The Census re- 
turns give 63,070 Japanese males and 9,087 Japanese females in 
1910, and 72,707 males and 38,303 females in 1920. Some alarm- 
ists have calculated that even under the Dillingham Immigration 
Law “the Japanese population of the United States in forty years 
would be two million, in eighty years ten million and in one hun- 
dred and fifty years, one hundred million.” 2 Opponents of the 
admission of the Japanese to the United States have argued that 
they were not assimilable, and that they were an economic and 
ethical and political menace. On the other hand evidence has been 
offered that they will and do assimilate, and are ready for natural- 
isation and Americanisation. Attorney-General Webb, arguing 
for the California Alien Land Laws which forbade aliens in- 
eligible to citizenship to hold land in the state, was asked by the 
Chief Justice, ‘““ What we want to know is what the Japanese are 
doing to which you take objection.” Mr. Webb did not answer 
that the Japanese would not assimilate. He replied, “ The white 
people refuse to assimilate with the Japanese and as the Japanese 
line advances we retreat and we do not like to retreat.” ** No 
doubt many of the Japanese in the United States propose to retain 
their Japanese nationality just as the Americans in Japan and 
China do, but many of the Japanese desire to be full Americans. 
Dr. Waterhouse recently conducted an investigation among 1,600 
American born Japanese young people with the following 
conclusion : 


* McClatchey, Our New Racial Problem, p. 6. 
“New York Times, April 24, 1923, 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 393 


“The Japanese in this country will not be assimilated by inter- 
marriage, but the second generation is apparently being assimi- 
lated in a cultural and social way, adopting American ideals, 
standards of thought, living and character. 

Sixteen hundred replies from Japanese children under 15 years 
of age who were born in this country, to a questionnaire show: 


That practically all are attending American 
public schools. 

Nearly two-thirds are attending Protestant 
Sunday Schools. 

Thirty-five per cent. gave their religion as 
Christian. 

Nineteen per cent. were Buddhists. 

The rest gave no answer. 


Three hundred forty-two replies from American-born Japanese 
between 15 and 22 years of age, representing 40 per cent. of the 
Japanese of that age born in California, show: 


Fifty-one per cent. were attending or planning 
to go to high school. 

Fifty per cent. were expecting to go to College. 

One-half were Christians. 

One-fifth were Buddhists. 


Without hesitation we join the ranks of those who argue that 
the Japanese can be assimilated, and the more thoroughly we study 
the situation, the more powerful is the conviction that the debate 
about the Japanese would cease to be a debate at all, if only all 
who argue against them could come into personal contact with 
the second generation of young men and women. 

It is not the purpose of this article to advocate, in any sense 
of the term, an open door for Oriental immigration. The sole 
reason for making this investigation was to get some first-hand, 
verified information as to the trend of thought and life in the 
second generation of Japanese in California upon which to base a 
judgment as to the right policy for treating those who are already 
here in this country.” * 


The sentiment of the Christian element of the Japanese in 
America was expressed in the action taken by the group in south- 
ern California on May 31, 1920, entitled “ Americanisation Ideals 
of Japanese Children in Southern California.” 


* Paul B, Waterhouse, Can the Japanese Be Assimilated? 


394 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“We, the pastors and laymen of 26 Japanese evangelical churches 
and missions of southern California, believing that Americanisa- 
tion can only be realised through Christianisation of these people, 
believing further that no one can fully appreciate, without acquir- 
ing the fundamental teachings of Christ, the mighty spirit of the 
foundation of the nation of liberty, equality and humanity which 
emanates throughout her history, do hereby adopt the following 
principles and policies for the Americanisation of 100,000 Japan- 
ese who are enjoying peace and prosperity in this country. 

(1) We who are in the United States are to be first of all loyal 
to the land of our adoption. 

(2) We are to endeavour to embody consistently in our daily 
life the fundamental principles and spirit of the American Gov- 
ernment and Christianity respecting her customs and institutions 
and abiding by the law of the land. 

(3) Having chosen our life work here we deem it our first duty 
to promote the welfare of our adopted country and contribute our 
share to its civilisation. Furthermore will we gladly be regarded 
as a forsaken band by the country that gave us our births. 

(4) As to the education of our children we think it best and 
sufficient to give them wholly American education, thus enabling 
them to become loyal and useful American citizens. By further 
affording them the spiritual education based on the teachings of 
Christ, we are not to place any obstacles and burdens in their 
Americanisation. 

In order to carry out the purpose of this resolution, irrespective 
of our religious affiliation, we do hereby unite and co-operate in 
our utmost endeavour to Americanise the Japanese in this country 
with hope, patience and justice, the fundamental teachings of 
Christ whose followers we are.” 


The Japanese are not allowed to be Americanised, however. 
The Supreme Court has ruled that the privilege of naturalisation 
is confined to white persons and those of African nationality and 
descent. Justice Sutherland, in the Court’s decision, maintained 
that there was no intent to assert any offensive racial distinction 
and then disposed of the idea that colour is a practicable cri- 
terion of race, but held that the term “ white person” meant a 
member of the Caucasian race. He was not ready to say who 
were and who were not Caucasians, but clearly Japanese were not, 
and therefore they could not be naturalised: 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3895 


“ Manifestly,” said he, “ the test afforded by the mere colour of 
the skin of each individual is impracticable, as that differs greatly 
among persons of the same race, even among Anglo-Saxons, rang- 
ing by imperceptible gradations from the fair blonde to the 
swarthy brunette, the latter being darker than many of the 
lighter-hued persons of the brown or yellow races. Hence to 
adopt the colour test alone would result in a confused overlapping 
of races and a gradual merging of one into the other without any 
practical line of separation. . . . The appellant, in the case 
now under consideration, however, is clearly of a race which is 
not Caucasian,” 46 


This does not mean, however, that there are no Japanese Ameri- 
can citizens. The Constitution gives American citizenship to all 
American-born children of whatever race. Until 1906 alien Jap- 
anese could become American citizens. A few were naturalised. 
Then, without act of Congress, by a rule of the Bureau of Nat- 
uralisation clerks of court were forbidden to give application 
forms to any but “free white men” and “persons of African 
, birth or descent.” Since that date no Japanese have been per- 
mitted to become naturalised citizens, except some 400 who had 
waived their right of exemption and joined our army in the war. 
By that act they earned the right to become citizens, and did so 
in 19T9, 

The total increase of the Japanese population by immigration 
during the past twelve years is 12,174. This number consists 
chiefly of wives and children, who were lawfully admitted. Prac- 
tically no new labourers were given passports by Japan or ad- 
mitted to this country. 

What is the rational and Christian racial policy for us to pursue 
toward the problem of the Japanese in America? The Japanese 
Exclusion League proposed: 

1. To enact Japanese exclusion laws like those dealing with 
Chinese. 

2. To prevent Japanese from owning or leasing ‘any farm land 
whatever, and to reduce all Japanese agriculturalists to sae status 
of day labourers. 


“The New York Times, Nov. 14, 1922. 


396 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


3. To forever prevent Japanese from becoming American 
citizens. 

4. To deny American citizenship to all American-born Japan- 
ese children. 

5. To have Congress pass the discriminatory drastic laws re- 
quired to secure the above objects. 

How much land do the Japanese own in California? The State 
Board of Control reports (1920) that the Japanese cultivate 
458,056 acres, most of it under short term leases. Of this they 
own 74,769 acres. California has an area of about twenty-eight 
million acres of farm land. Of this, only one and six-tenths per 
cent. is cultivated by Japanese. They produce, however, 13% 
of California’s total food output. Their produce is valued at 
$67,000,000, or which 35% is paid to land owners as rentals and 
45% to labour as wages. The balance of 20% is the reward for 
Japanese tenants or contractors. 

The National Committee for Constructive Immigration Legis- 
lation proposed a different course of action from the Exclusion ~ 
League: 

1. Congress should provide for the complete stoppage of Japan- 
ese immigration, until it is clear that those in congested areas can 
and have become truly Americanised, establishing wholesome rela- 
tions with the rest of the population. 

2. The needed legislation should be free from features humili- 
ating to Japanese, therefore free from offensive race discrimina- 
tion. The new immigration law should be general in scope and 
apply equally to all peoples. 

3. The standards for naturalisation should be raised and the 
privileges of citizenship should be extended to all who qualify. 

Which is the rational and humane course? Which course is in 
accord with the actual facts of race and race relationship which 
we have faced in these studies? The last Congress answered in 
a way which the public opinion of the nation, uttered in the press 
and through the churches, disapproved. Life expressed the preva- 
lent view when it sent to Congress an award of a prize for “ Big- 
ger and Better Wars,” in recognition of its action in formulating 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 3897 


“a plan so simple and inevitable in its potentialities for the pro- 
motion of ill-will.” 47 

The race problem between American and Japanese in the Ha- 
walian Islands is more difficult than on the Pacific Coast. The 
Japanese constitute 43% of the population of the Islands. The 
Immigration Committee of the U. S. Senate presented a report 
on March 1, 1923, in which it said: ‘‘On account of their close 
adhesiveness and characteristic collective manner of action, the 
Japanese have it in their power to control the industries of the 
territory by being able, either to furnish or fail to furnish the 
labour without which those industries cannot live. Immigration to 
supply the immediate needs of the agricultural industries and re- 
lieve an existing acute shortage must take into consideration the 
overwhelming preponderance of Japanese in the islands, their 
control of the labour situation and the possibility amounting to 
practical certainty, under existing conditions, that the American 
control of the island industries may pass into the hands of this 
alien race.” 

And the Labour Department’s “ Hawaiian Labour Commis- 
sion ” in its report made public in Jan., 1923, expressed great con- 
cern over both the labour and political conditions.*® The report 
says that 


“attention should be specially called to the menace of alien 
domination, and the present policy of ‘parental adoption’ and 
importation of ‘ picture brides’ by the Japanese should be stopped, 
because these practices have defeated the purpose of the ‘ gentle- 
men’s agreement’ to curtail common ‘labour importations’ by 
augmenting the supply to such an extent that it ‘ will soon over- 
whelm the territory numerically, politically and commercially.’ 

“The menace from a military standpoint,’ says the report, 
“can be fully verified by referring to the records of related Fed- 
eral departments. 

“The question of national defense,” the report continues, ‘“ sub- 
merges all others into insignificance. If these islands are to re- 
main American the assured control of the political, industrial, 


“Millis, The Japanese Problem in the United States; The Congressional 
Digest, Vol. II, Nos. 10-11, July-August, 1923, pp. 317-319. 
* See, however, Romanzo Adams, The Japanese in Hawaii. 


398 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


social and educational life of the islands must also be American, 
and the sooner we wake up to a fuller appreciation of this im- 
perative and immediate need the sooner we will make the people 
of the Hawaiian Islands feel generally a greater sense of security 
and control of all that contributes to make continued living in the 
Territory of Hawaii worth while. In the interests of national 
defense and the welfare of American citizenship in the territory, 
the commission respectfully and earnestly recommends that the 
question of alien domination be immediately referred to the Con- 
gress of the United States for the necessary remedial legislation.” 


Why not solve the problem by right and friendly relations, 
rather than by suspicion and war ideals? It ought to be solved 
also on grounds of racial justice and consideration, and not of 
discrimination against race as race. The Japanese are ready for 
-its solution on such grounds, Baron Shibusawa declares: 


“Tn order that there shall be no possible apprehension in 
America in regard to the nature of our ideas and desires, let me 
assure all Americans that we have no thought of asking for our 
labour people any privileges of free immigration to the United 
States. We distinguish quite clearly between the questions of 
immigration and those of discriminatory legislation against Japan- 
ese already lawfully residing in your country. Your discrimi- 
natory legislation seems to us to be contrary to the principles of 
humanity and of the great Christian faith which so many of you 
profess. We ask for nothing from the people and Government of 
the United States, in their dealings with members of our race in 
your land, except that which is fair and honourable. We seek no 
special privileges or favours. We ask only, and we ask earnestly, 
that nothing be done in respect to our people that is essentially 
humiliating to them, nothing that discriminates between them and 
other races in the United States merely on the ground of colour or 
difference of facial contour and expression. : 

“It may not be amiss to state in this connection that since the 
adoption by Japan, in the last half of the last century, of the main 
principles of Occidental government, we have no discriminatory 
laws based on differences of race or nationality or religion. This 
principle we learned from the West, chiefly from your own coun- 
try. Americans in Japan enjoy the same privileges and rights of 
land ownership, naturalisation, and everything else that we grant 
to individuals of any other nation or race. 

“It may be also well for me to state in the clearest terms that 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 399 


we do not have the least objection to the deportation of individual 
Japanese who are found to be unlawfully in the United States; 
nor do we object to the rejection of Japanese travellers who may 
be lawless or who do not conform to general standards of moral 
character, literacy, and the like, such as are applied generally to all 
travellers from every race and people. But I think you will easily 
understand why we as Japanese cannot but resent proposals and 
laws that discriminate against Japanese merely as Japanese, re- 
gardless of their individual and personal qualifications.” *9 


It will be little to the credit of our good sense, our political 
capacity or our spirit of justice if we cannot find a peaceable and 
adequate solution of this question.°° 

4. Two other internal race problems enter into our American 
thinking, the Indian and the Jew. 

It is very difficult to arrive at a just racial picture of the Indian. 
Was he a savage? Was hea noble savage? Was he no savage at 
all? John Heckewelder, one of the early Moravian missionaries 
to the Indians, who came to America in 1754 and became Zeis- 
berger’s assistant, in his account of the Indians, whom he had 
known intimately for fifty years, wrote, in 1817, that nothing was 
so false as this savage picture of Indian character. | 


“Every person,” he says, “ who is well acquainted with the true 
character of the Indians will admit that they are peaceable, so- 
ciable, obliging, charitable, and hospitable among themselves, and 
that those virtues are, as it were, a part of their nature. In their 
ordinary intercourse, they are studious to oblige each other. They 
neither wrangle nor fight; they live, 1 believe, as peaceably to- 
gether as any people on earth, and treat one another with the 
greatest respect. That they are not devoid of tender feelings has 
been sufficiently shown in the course of this work. 1] do not mean 
to speak of those whose manners have been corrupted by a long 
intercourse with the worst class of white men; they are a degener- 


Letter from Baron E. Shibusawa, June 5, 1923. 

5° See Gulick, Should Congress Enact Special Laws Affecting Japanese? 
and New Factors in American Japanese Relations and a Constructive Pros- 
pect; Axling, On the Trail of the Truth about Japan; The American Com- 
mittee of Justice, California and the Japanese; per contra, McClatchey, Our 
New Racial Problem; The Literary Digest, March 1, 1924, p. 14. As to the 
assimilability of the yellow races, especially the Chinese, as illustrated in 
Hawaii see China and the Far East, Clark University Papers, pp. 295, 315. 


400 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ate race, very different from the true genuine Indians whom | 
have attempted to describe.” *! 


If we are in doubt as to whether to accept Heckewelder’s esti- 
mate, which he supports with facts and testimonies as to the 
Indian races before contact with the whites, and are disposed to 
set against it the account which history gives of the Indians and 
of the wars waged against them, it is well to remember that the 
histories were written by the race which invaded the land and 
waged the wars, although we have also tried to do justice to 
the record, and A Century of Dishonour will endure as an honest 
attempt to tell the truth and to right wrong. 

The story of race relationship between Indian and white is a 
long story of the wrong and deadly way to deal with such issues. 
It is clear that the Indians had no exclusive title to North Amer- 
ica, that the white race was warranted in coming here and opening 
the continent to its intended uses. And no doubt, man being 
what he is, such a process will be filled with blunder and waste as 
every decade of human life has been for centuries. 

Our consolation is that we have come at last to a better mind 
regarding the Indian, and that reason and justice and Christian 
duty have at last been applied, in a measure at least, to this race 
problem. The evidence is found in the increase of the Indian 
population, its advancing prosperity and intelligence, its health 
and character. Any estimate of the number of Indians who were 
here on the discovery of America is mere guess work. Dr. East- 
man thinks the total number of natives of North America could 
not have been far from half a million.°? “ Since that period,” he 
says, “ they have fallen off in numbers but not to the extent popu- 
larly supposed, and are now slowly increasing.” The census 
returns show that the Indians in the United States decreased from 
256,127 in 1880 to 243,504 in 1890, and then increased to 270,544 
in 1900 and to 340,838 in 1921. The Hon. Cato Sells, when Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, declared, “I repudiate the suggestion 


*t Heckewelder’s Indian Nations, Memoirs of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, Vol. XII, p. 330. 
4 Universal Races Congress, 1911, p. 367. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 401 


that the Indian is a ‘ vanishing race.’ He should march side by 
side with white men during all the years to come. It is our chief 
duty to protect the Indian’s health, and to save him from prema- 
ture death. Before we educate him, before we conserve his prop- 
erty, we should save his life.” °? The Indian’s life seems to have 
been saved. At the same time the line of demarcation between 
the two races becomes increasingly indistinct. The break up of 
the reservations, the allotment of land in severalty, the education 
of the Indians, the increase of wealth among them, the steady 
progress of Christianity, their economic community with the rest 
of the life of the land, the progress of intermarriage with other 
races are all helping to heal their old sore and to merge the Indian 
both into the nation and into the race.** 

There is still need of the working of the right interracial spirit 
in this wide and scattered field. The Indians are divided into 
more than 150 tribal bands and clans with as many different lan- 
guages and dialects. They are scattered on 147 reservations and 
many hundred communities in many states of the Union. Okla- 
homa has nearly one-third of the entire number, with Arizona 
second. The Dakotas or Sioux, the Chippewas and the Navajos 
are the largest tribal groups. 

As to means of support and advancement in education and 
citizenship the following tabulations are indicative: 

133,193 speak English 
91,331 read and write 
84,462 are citizens. 


Of 62,138 adult men enumerated 


40,962 were engaged in farming 
44.847 raised stock 
26,949 were engaged in other industries. 


Practically one-fourth of the children eligible for school at- 
tendance are not in school. 
Conditions of health and sanitation have improved with stricter 


8 Moore, The South Today, p. 137. 
* Talbot, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, Chap. X; Lindquist, The Red 
Man in the United States. 


402 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


federal supervision, but tuberculosis and trachoma are the two 
diseases which are very prevalent, a study of 207,000 Indians 
revealing 24,773 cases of the former and 30,795 of the latter. 

To this great task the white race has at last begun conscien- 
tiously to apply itself. It will have a great deal to contend against 
in its own base elements and in the effect of its past mistreatment 
of the Indian race, but it means to do right. The Secretary of 
the Interior, Mr. Work, expresses its mind in his letter constitut- 
ing a Committee of one hundred citizens to advise on a right 
Indian policy : 


“The Indians, many having suddenly acquired wealth, with 
their citizenship rights, allotted lands, agricultural development, 
schools, religions and diseases, present an appeal more acute than 
ever before. For many years the Government has been charged 
intermittently with having no policy, or with exploiting the Indian, 
or with acquiescing in his extinction, or with permitting the dissi- 
pation of his wealth. 

“ Although the Indian Bureau has recently received encouraging 
approval from advised sources of its altruistic attitude, the present 
Secretary of the Interior desires, of course, to plan the best pos- 
sible policy in its relation to these people and execute it in a man- 
ner that will work the greatest good. 

“A determination of the Government’s commitments to the In- 
dian must either lead to an educated, self-sustaining Indian citi- 
zenry or the ultimate dependency of a majority of them.’ ®° 


A still more perplexing problem is that of Semitic race and 
anti-race feeling. Both these words raise at once the question 
about which both Jews and Gentiles are disagreed—Are the Jews 
a race and is the question of their relations to others a race ques- 
tion? Prof. Boas answers no. There is no Italian or French or © 
German race, he says. Each of these groups is a mixture. 
Racially the South Germans are of the same type as the Central 
French, | 


“Even in antiquity while the Jews still formed an independent — 
state they represented a thorough mixture of divergent racial — 
types. . . . Even in antiquity, therefore, we cannot speak of a © 


% The New York Times, May 12, 1923. 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 408 


Jewish race as distinct from other races in Asia Minor. [ 
The dispersion of the Jews all over the world has tended to in- 
crease considerably the intermixture. . . . The Jews of North 
Africa are, in their essential traits, North Africans. The Jews of 
Europe are in their essential traits Europeans, and the black Jews 
of the East are in their essential traits members of a dark- 
pigmented race. . . . It is often claimed that the Jews have 
certain mental characteristics which are due to hereditary causes. 
There may be a certain truth in this statement, but not in the sense 
in which it is generally taken. Among all the Jews there are cer- 
tain rather small groups which are thus characterised—the mer- 
chants of Europe and America, the journalists, musicians, etc. It 
must be recognised that the groups to which these individuals 
belong represent on the whole a very small, closely inbred portion 
of the Jewish population of the world. The amount of inbreeding 
which occurs in human life is generally very much underestimated. 
Statistical inquiries in regard to the increase of population show 
that the European nobility and the European peasantry are both 
closely inbred, while the lack of inbreeding is rather characteristic 
of our unstable industrial population, particularly of our modern 
city populations. The inbreeding which occurs among the Jews 
may, therefore, have produced a number of small groups repre- 
senting certain hereditary strains who are characterised by certain 
physical and mental characteristics, probably in the same way as 
in ancient Athenian society the smallness of the group and the 
consequent inbreeding developed a number of strains character- 
ised by very definite mental traits. Taken as a whole, however, 
the Jews do not show any such traits that cannot be adequately 
accounted for by the influence of the social environment in which 
they live. The mental characteristics of certain strains must not, 
of course, be taken to mean that the actual mental life of the indi- 
vidual is determined solely by these hereditary traits, but rather - 
that under certain social conditions these will become operative in 
one way or another. 

“ There is certainly nothing that would indicate the existence of 
any definite mental characteristics which are the common property 
of the Jews the world over, or even of a large part of the Jews of 
any one community. ‘The mental reactions of the Jews in each 
community are determined by the social conditions under which 
they live. 

“Summing up the whole evidence we may conclude that we 
have just as little right to say there is a Jewish race as that there 
is a French race or a German race or a Spanish race. All of them 
are descendants of various strains which have developed anatom- 


404 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


ically and mentally according to the historical fates which each 
nation has undergone.” °° 


While he includes the Jews among the racial groups, Professor 
Dixon seems to incline to the view of Dr. Boas. 


“The questions of the racial origin and unity of the Jews,” 
says he, “ have long been fertile themes for discussion. The tra- 
ditional view has always been that they were a true Semitic 
people, and, indeed, the term Semite has popularly come to be 
practically synonymous with Jew. ‘They were regarded as a 
people whose purity of blood had, in spite of wide dispersion, 
been jealously preserved throughout the centuries. As soon, how- 
ever, as detailed investigations in regard to Jewish physical types 
began to be available, it appeared that it was extremely doubtful 
whether either of these assumptions was true, for the Jews proved 
to be by no means uniform in their physical characteristics, and 
the great majority appeared to be of a different type from that 
found among other Semitic-speaking peoples. . . . One of the 
main causes which has been suggested as responsible for the vari- 
ation in the physical type of the Jews is that of intermarriage with 
the Gentile population among which they live, and it has fre- 
quently been pointed out that the Jew thus generally approximates 
the character of the surrounding peoples, whatever this may be. 
That such intermarriage does indeed occur, and has occurred 
throughout the past, can be demonstrated, although the extent of 
the practice is very hard to determine. The belief that the Jew 
merely reflects the physical type of the Gentile population among 
which he lives we shall find to be borne out in general by 
the facts.” >? 


This view, that the Jews are not a race but an artificial na- 
tionality cemented by religion, is set forth by a writer in The 
Living Age: 


“The so-called purity of the Jewish race is a fable. The word 
‘Jew’ has no ethnological significance. ‘’The whole controversy, 
so far as it rests upon race, is based on a groundless myth. It is 
essentially an empty and irrational dispute, because, from the 
physical standpoint, there are no such races as alluded to. There 


% Art. in The World Tomorrow, Jan., 1923, p. 5 f. 
Dixon, The Racial History of Man, pp. 162, 164. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 405 


is no such thing as a Semitic nation. A Semitic nation is solely a 
philological conception. The Semitic-speaking peoples differ 
radically from each other, and have no anatomical features in 
common with the Jews, or, in many cases, with each other. There 
is no pure Semitic type. The Jews are a mixed race. They have 
few traits in common with the Arabs, who come nearest to being 
pure Semites of any people. They resemble the Europeans among 
whom they live much more than they do the Bedouins.’ 

“ But the honest reader will ask: ‘ Do you mean to say there is 
no difference between a Jew and a Christian?’ Certainly there is, 
but a difference due to historical rather than anatomical causes. 
The key to the puzzle is found in segregation, which was partly 
voluntary and partly involuntary. At first the Jews lived apart 
from other peoples of their own volition; later they were forced 
to do this whether they so willed or not. 

“The saying is as old as it is true that the Jews are what the 
people among whom they live make them. What are the Jews 
really? The Jews are an artificial nation, sprung from an inter- 
mingling of countless nationalities, and forming a religious com- 
munity. ‘The existence of this religious community is maintained 
by voluntary accessions, the forced exclusion of its members from 
other social groups, and the prohibition of mixed marriages. This 
brings us to Count Coudenhove’s definition: ‘The Jews are an 
artificial nationality created by a religious discipline out of in- 
numerable racial elements.” °° 


This view of the Jews as neither a real nation nor a pure race, 
nor a religious denomination, but a “religious people,” was re- 
cently set forth by one of the American Jewish leaders, Rabbi 
Nathan Krass, in Temple Emanu-E] in New York: 


“Dr. Krass denied emphatically that the Jews constitute a 
nation or an ‘imperium in imperio,’ since for almost 2,000 years 
they have not possessed the essentials that constitute a nation, 
namely, a common sovereign, soil and a common political govern- 
ment. The Jews, he said, ceased to be a nation when Jerusalem 
was destroyed by the Romans in the first century of the pres- 
ent era. 

“The Jews, he maintained, are not a pure race. Through their 


The Living Age, June 23, 1923, art. by Bertrand Alexander, “ Anti- 
Semitism,” pp. 699, 701. Disraeli, in Coningsby, exulted in the idea of the 
absolute and unequalled racial purity of the Jews. Conimgsby, Book IV, 
chs. X, XV. 


406 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


pilgrimage during the ages they drew into their ethnic circle indi- 
viduals and groups of other origins, but managed to absorb and 
assimilate them, so that by and large the Jews maintained their 
ethnic integrity up to the present day. But this ethnic subdivision 
of the human family was not merely a race. It was much more 
than that, he declared. It was a ‘holy people, —that is, a people 
of common origin, dedicated to a common task, the guardianship 
of ethical monotheism, the religion of righteousness based on the 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 

“<The Jews are not a religious denomination, for denomina- 
tions have only surface value in the language of mathematics,’ 
said Dr. Krass. ‘The Jews are more than a religious community ; 
they are a religious people, though many among them today may 
be non-religious or irreligious. The Jews are a divine amalgam 
of race and religion, and this amalgam has never been broken or 
separated. All attempts to do so must be futile, for the Jew has 
no reason to exist as a separate race unless he dedicates himself 
to the noble task of religious service. Though the Jews have 
achieved fame in all fields of human endeavour, they are unique 
and unexcelled in the realm of religion. Moses, the Hebrew 
prophets, Jesus and Paul were all Jews. The Bible is the greatest 
religious literature in the annals of history. This sublime and 
unique literature is the product of the Jews. 

“* Not by forsaking his faith, but by living up to its principles 
will the American Jew contribute to the development of a country 
still in the making.’ ” °° 


But there are Jews and Gentiles who dispute this view. Mr. 
Leo Newmark, in a letter to The Nation, May 16, 1923, quotes 
against it the judgment of Dr. Arthur Kirth in a lecture at Ox- 
ford on “ Nationality and Race from an Anthropologist’s Point 
of View ”: 


“If we except the Lapps and other Mongolian elements in 
Russia, there is only one people in Europe with a legitimate claim 
to be regarded as racially different from the general population. 
That exception is the Jewish people. . . . The Jews maintain a 
racial frontier, such as dominant races surround themselves with; 
they carry themselves as if racially distinct. Their original stock 
was clearly Eastern in its derivation ; the peoples of Europe sprang 
from another racial source. . . . However much the Jewish 
racial frontier may be strengthened by the faith which is the 


*® The New York Times, Dec. 3, 1923. 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 407 


standard of the race, raids have been made, are now made, across 
the frontier and a certain degree of hybridisation has occurred. 
Even thus exposed in the eddying seas of modern civilisation, the 
race spirit of the Jews has preserved the greater part of the origi- 
nal characters carried into Europe by the pioneer Semitic bands. 
In 90 per cent. of the Jews the physical or Semitic characters are 
apparent to the eye even of the uninitiated Gentile. In the Jewish 
people we see nature steering one of her cargoes of differentiated 
humanity between the Scylla and Charybidis of the modern sea 
of industrial civilisation.” 


Whether or not the Jews are a race, they are a human group 
distinguished from other groups, for all practical purposes, as 
races are distinguished, and the question of the relations between 
them and other groups is identical with the general question of 
race relations, with three peculiar differentiations, namely, a spe- 
cial prejudice, just or unjust, against,some of the characteristics 
of the Jews; an inheritance of evil incidents of wrong done on 
both sides, perhaps predominantly on the side of the non-Jews; 
and an unequalled resistance to religious assimilation on the side 
of the Jews. To the extent that the view of Judaism not as a 
race but as a religious culture is sound, the problem of relations 
will be dealt with efficiently only as a religious and cultural prob- 
lem. And while there will be many who will reject the idea, 
nevertheless, the facts of American life will support it, namely, 
that the problem of Jewish race and anti-race feeling would be 
more quickly resolved if any considerable number of Jews were 
to become Christians. But if Judaism is not a race but a religious 
nationality, such a solution would mean the disappearance of the 
religion into Christianity, which already includes the Hebrew 
Scriptures, and of the nationality into Americanism. On the other 
hand it is clear that Judaism is not a homogeneous religion. There 
is a wider religious gulf between old and new Judaism than be- 
tween the latter and some non-Jewish religious groups. Professor 
Ellwood, who pleads “ for the unity of Jews and Christians upon 
the basis of a humanitarian religion and ethics,” °° holds that 
“there is really no difference today between liberal Christianity 


Ellwood, The Reconstruction of Religton, p. 283 f. 


408 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


and liberal Judaism.” ®' What, then, is it that holds all these 
Jewish groups together against all outside groups? Is there, after 
all, a racial bond, if not physiological, then social and moral, which 
is as real as any other racial bond? 

It is no simple problem. And it is clear that there are faults 
in both races, Jews and non-Jews in America.°? How can we 
make some progress in America with its 3,900,000 Hebrews, with 
“the world’s largest and most influential Jewries?” ® By deal- 
ing, personally and socially, with the causes of ill will and preju- 
dice and seeking to remove them. What are they? A small 
conference between Jewish and Christian leaders recently named 
these: 


Sheer misunderstandings. 
Differences in habits and customs. 
Economic competition. 

Jealousy of success. 

Fear of losing leadership. 
Personal aggressiveness. 

Bad manners. 

Pride of intellect. 

Gregariousness and its accompanying provincialism. 
10. Dogmatic moods and utterances. 
11. The air of superiority. 

12. Selfishness. 


§O OO 1 ee Be 


The problems which the Jews themselves face and which they 
present to the rest of society are indicated by a few utterances of 
Jewish leaders at the time of the Golden Jubilee Convention of the 
Union of American Hebrew Congregations in New York, in Janu- 
ary, 1923. The gravity of the problem justifies a full presentation 
of material for the reader’s judgment: 


Dr. Marius Ranson: “ It is essential that a selection be made of 
the important historical, ethical and religious productions of 


* Letter Dr. Charles A. Ellwood to Dr. Isidor Singer, Jan. 25, 1923, pub- 
lished by Dr. Singer. 

* See The American Hebrew, July 28, 1922, art. by Dr. Joseph Jastrow, 
“What is Prejudice and Why?” and Sept. 22, 1922, art. by Col. Harris 
Weinstock, “The Case Stated.” 

* The Missionary Review of the World, March, 1923, p. 166 f. 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 409 


our Bible and that the great mass of inconsequential, trivial 
and tautological material be eliminated. The union prayerbook 
represents a bold revision of this character. The Bible cannot 
attain the respect it deserves until it, too, is modernised in 
this manner. 

“A twentieth century Bible must recognise the universality 
of revelation. The ethics of Buddha as well as of Confucius 
and all the other god-intoxicated seers of the human race must 
be included in a Bible that is intended for the brotherhood 
of man. 

“The Jewish Bible must begin to establish a rapprochment 
between Christianity and Judaism. For many centuries the 
ethics of Jesus, the great Jewish prophet, have been a closed 
book to the Jew. The Christless antagonism of Christianity 
and Judaism of sixteen centuries can be wiped out in our day 
by the adoption of a revised life of Jesus in which, on the one 
hand the Christians will abandon the New Testament slander 
against the Jews and on the other hand, the Jew will accept 
the Jewish ethics of Jesus. 

“For a century the Jews of western lands have believed 
and have loudly proclaimed to the rest of the world that Juda- 
ism is a religion and Jewry a religious community and not a 
nationality. In this position they have abandoned the ancient 
and medieval belief that the Jews are in exile from Palestine 
as a punishment for the sins of their ancestors; and they have 
also abandoned the hope or ambition of returning en masse to 
Palestine, there to re-establish the ancient Jewish State. 

“Most emphatic of the Jews of any country have been 
the Jews of the United States in declaring that we are Ameri- 
cans in nationality, Jews only in religious belief.” 


President Charles Shohl: “ The best product of the half century 
is the new Jewish point of view. Fifty years ago the Jewish 
people of America were torn by factionalism. ‘This was not 
improved by the increasing tide of immigration. Each year 
brought from widely separated parts of Europe, Jewish groups 
whose ideas were at variance, whose habits clashed and whose 
religious observances seemed to be mutually incompatible. 
Misplaced loyalties, sentimental attachment to regional ante- 
cedents, produced the appearance of endless sects and sectaries. 
Religion being the ruling passion of the Jew became under 
these circumstances the cause of bitter disputation. The out- 
look for many years was chaotic and discouraging. 

“The last fifty years have witnessed an important change 


410 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


in this direction. The Jews have achieved a certain degree of 
homogeneity. I doubt if there is yet a well developed and dis- 
tinct type of ‘ American Jew.’ 

“Perhaps this will have to await the days of the well devel- 
oped American type in general. However, a very large per- 
centage of the Jews of this country have recognised certain 
American conditions as not unfriendly and have adopted them 
as inevitable. To that extent, and it is not inconsiderable, they 
have achieved a unified outlook upon life. 

“This shows itself in many hopeful ways. Less and less 
emphasis is being laid by thoughtful people on recent or remote 
European geographical loyalties. The societies based on racial 
unity that flourished thirty years ago are giving way to re- 
ligious organisations, and religion, the ancient first-love of 
the Jewish people, is again assuming its important place in 
Israel’s heart.” 


Chairman Daniel P. Hays: ‘“ An attachment to race—a feeling of 
kinship for our suffering brethren here and abroad which 
prompts American Jews to contribute toward: the economic 
rehabilitation of Palestine, to sustain institutions here for the 
relief of the sick and unfortunate or to send money to Europe 
to lighten the burdens of poverty and persecution, are worthy 
impulses of the human heart. They may be influenced by a 
code of ethics which all civilised people believe in today, and 
if ethics on our part is the only motive power, why retain our 
separateness ? 

“Judaism is a religion, the mother of all religions. It is the 
spiritual legacy of the Jew and has enriched the civilisation of 
the world by a knowledge of God and all that makes for right- 
eousness. We need no excuse for the observance of our re- 
ligion in a land where freedom of conscience is a part of the 
fundamental law. We do need sorely an excuse for the main- 
tenance of any separateness in America upon racial or eth- 
nological grounds.” 


Judge Horace Stern: ‘ The unique gift of the Jew to the world 
is religion, and I believe that Judaism alone constitutes the 
raison d’étre of the Jew. I am not especially proud if a great 
musician happens to be a Jew, because Judaism is not a school 
of music, nor if a celebrated actor is a Jew, because Judaism is 
not a school of histrionics, nor if a famous prize fighter is a 
Jew, because Judaism is not a school of pugilism. I do, how- 
ever, exult if a philanthropic, altruistic, spiritual, peace-loving, 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 411 


reverential, God-fearing man is a Jew, because those attributes 
and qualities are the teachings and the aim of the Jewish 
religion. 

“ Also we must ever bear in mind that we cannot live, re- 
ligiously or morally speaking, upon the past glories of our 
race.” 


Edgar M. Cahn: ‘“ We are turning away our hearts and souls 
from the genial and warming influences of the lives and sacri- 
fices which are our history. We no longer deserve to be 
called ‘A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation.’ We are 
happy to be numbered with our fellow citizens as 100 per cent. 
Americans. We justly resent with indignation any imputation 
against our loyalty to our country and flag. But, now, behold 
the frightful discount. We are less than 50 per cent. in things 
Jewish and in the measure of our lives and living, as Jews, and 
in the observance of the Sabbath and the festivals.” 


Some other illuminating utterances of Jewish leaders may be 
added: 


Dr. Julian Morgenstern: Dr. Morgenstern described reformed 
Judaism which, he said, was brought to America from Ger- 
many, and orthodox Judaism, which came with the East Euro- 
pean Jewry. He said that the struggle between those two 
phases of Judaism was not so much over theological and ritual 
differences as social distinctions. He predicted that the strug- 
gle for leadership between the reform and orthodox would 
eventually bring forth “the American Jew.” 

“Forth from the strife and tumult,” said Dr. Morgenstern, 
“born as it were upon the very field of battle, will step the 
victor, young and vigourous, strong, looking not backward to 
either German or Russian ancestry, nor cherishing suspicion 
or grievance against his fellow Jew of differing ancestry, but 
looking forward proudly to the future and dedicating himself 
to the sacred task of building up for himself and his children a 
precious heritage of truth and light, ‘the American Jew.’ ” ® 


Mr. Louis Marshall: “I disagree totally with Mr. Zangwill’s inti- 
mation that the Jews of this country should unite for political 
action, or that there should be such a thing as a Jewish vote 
in the United States. The thought cannot be tolerated that the 


* The New York Times, Nov. 5, 1923. 


412 


Dr. 


RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


citizens of this country should form racial or religious groups 
in the exercise of their civic and political functions.” © 


Samuel Schulman: ‘‘ We, the non-Zionists, feel that we have 
been right in uncompromisingly opposing Zionism as a new 
philosophy of Jewish life. We were never in doubt that in 
rejecting modern Jewish nationalism, we were not only inter- 
preting correctly the destiny of Israel but we were also advo- 
cating what is for the best interests of dispersed Jewry. Our 
thought was clear and consistent. We held that Israel today 
is a religious community and nothing else. And in the light of 
this fundamental idea all questions of organisations within 
Jewry must be answered and the attitude of every practical 
problem must be determined.” . . . He denied that ortho- 
dox Judaism was ever for Zionism, as orthodox Judaism is a 
religion and has nothing to do with “that new secular Nation- 
alism among the Jews, of which some of the most distin- 
guished leaders in the Zionist movement are the exponents. 

It is wrong to speak of Palestine as a homeland for the 
Jewish people or of any land as a homeland for the Jewish 
people. Any land can only be a home for individual Jews and 
Jewesses. The Jewish people, Israel, whom God called in 
righteousness to be a light to the nations, the Congregation of 

Israel, has only one home and that is the whole world.” ® 

“The Jew himself has assimilated the various civilisations 
and cultures, of which he has been a part. In his soul is 
registered the progress of mankind. But the charges made 
against him have not changed. There is nothing new in mod- 
ern anti-Semitism which in the least distinguishes it from the 
ancient article. 

“There is nothing subtle or profound or strange about anti- 
Semitism which requires any special explanation, nor is it an 
enigma, demanding far-fetched analysis. It represents the evil 
in unregenerate human nature. It is a thing compact of race 
hatred, of mob tyranny and of religious bigotry. 

“The essence of anti-Semitism consists in this unholy trin- 
ity. It is the tribal antipathy to the mass of different blood. 
It is the refusal of the multitude to permit a minority to dwell 
within it and walk the way of its own thought, and it is the 
bigoted deification of religious belief, which looks with horror 
upon those who dare to dissent from it.” ° 


® Tbid., Oct. 26, 1923. 
° Ibid. Nov. 5, 1923. 
" Ibid., Feb, 26, 1923. 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 418 


Dr. Cyrus Adler on Dr. Solomon Schechter: “ When that great 
man and distinguished scholar, Dr. Solomon Schechter, entered 
upon the Presidency of the Seminary, he declared: 

““The religion in which the Jewish ministry should be 
trained must be specifically and purely Jewish, without any 
alloy or adulteration. Judaism must stand or fall by that 
which distinguishes it from other religions as well as by that 
which it has in common with them. . . . It permeates the 
whole of your life. It demands control over all your actions 
and interferes with your menu. It sanctifies the season, and 
regulates your history, both in the past and in the future. 

: Judaism is absolutely incompatible with the abandon- 
ment of the Torah. Nay, every prophet or seer must bring 
his imprimatur from the Torah,’ 

“Ten years later he said: 

“* Our work has been a hard one, considering . . . the 
great divisions among the people engendered by the extreme 
tendencies of the various parties, be they Reform or Orthodox, 
which could never understand a frame of mind that refused to 
be labelled by the names they wished to attach to it.’ 

“He gave as our ideal: 

“<The creation of a conservative tendency which was al- 
most entirely absent or lay dormant in this country for a long 
time. Its aim was to preserve and to sustain traditional Juda- 
ism in all its integrity and by means of the spoken or written 
word to bring back to the consciousness of Jewry its heroic 
past, which must serve as a model if we were to have a glori- 
ous future, or any future at all; but, at the same time, to re- 
main in touch with our present surroundings and modern 
thought, and to adopt what was the best in them and above all, 
to make use of modern method and system.’ 

“Judassm is a way of life. It has developed to this end a 
code of law and under this code there are definite and positive 
acts to be done. A religious Jew believes that he must act in 
accordance with the Jewish law.” ®& 


Rabbi Isaac Landman: “ American Judaism, however, is the re- 
sult of a religious evolution that has been in progress for more 
than two generations in America. It is Judaism come under 
the influence of American institutions and American ideals. 
It is Judaism released from Ghetto walls and the Ghetto spirit. 


® The Jewish Tribune, Oct. 5, 1923, art. by Dr. Cyrus Adler, “ The Story 
of the Seminary,” p. 26, 


414 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


It is Judaism that has broken through narrowing nationalism 
and stifling medievalism. It is Judaism that has rediscovered 
the fundamental ethical principles and the universal spiritual 
ideals of the Hebrew prophets. 

“It is Judaism that asks not what our fathers were and 
believed and did, but what our sons will be, will believe, will 
do. It is Judaism that has cast off the miraculous and the 
impermanent, that rejects the elements in the Bible that were 
of fugitive value and accepts only those that promulgate truths 
which are compatible with reason and with science. It is the 
Judaism of the age-old vision that comprehends humanity.” °° 


Would Dr. Schulman “look with horror” or without reproach 
on any larger acceptance by Jews of the Christian faith? Because, 
back of all, there is the fundamental religious issue.“ Honest 


@ Tbid., Feb. 26, 1923. 

% Sometimes, of course, the religious issue is displaced by ne social or 
economic issues. (See letter in The Nation, May 16, 1923, pp. 572 f.) Some- 
times mixed with the political issues: “It is to the Christians or to those 
masquerading as Christians, that your plea for social justice should be 
more directly addressed, for it is only in the so-called Christian countries 
of the world that the Jews are persecuted or where they are denied justice. 
The non-Christian countries are more just to the Jews.” (Letter from Sir 
Isidore Spielmann to Dr. Isidore Singer, April 24, 1923.) Sometimes 
nakedly sharp: “ Anti-Semitism is a chronic aspect of Christian history. 
Days Why are the Jews the perennial devil of the piece? The answer lies 
in the Christian religion itself, in the status which Christianity assigns to 
the Jews and the burden it sets and binds on them. In the Christian sys- 
tem, then, the Jews are assigned a central and dramatic status. They are 
the villains of the drama of salvation. Attitudes that Sunday Schools the 
world over impart automatically to children at five may be deep buried and 
forgotten at five and fifty, but they are not extirpated, nor translated. They 
make a subsoil of preconceptions upon which other interests are nourished 
and from which they gather strength. If you can end this teaching that the 
Jews are the enemies of God and of mankind you will strike anti-Semitism 
at its foundations.” (The Nation, Feb. 28, 1923, art. by Horace M. Kallen, 
“The Roots of Anti-Semitism.”) But it would be easy to balance this with 
Jewish utterances against Christians and against all inter-racial assimila- 
tions and kinships, and one writer in the issue of The Nation, May 16, 1923, 
declares that anti-Semitism antedated Christianity and another that Chris- 
tianity “is no guiltier than its prototype, the Jewish religion, in the preach- 
ing of hate.” It should be added that Jewish teachers also disavow any 
opposition to intermarriage of Jews with non-Jews on racial grounds, but 
declare this opposition to be wholly religious. So Rabbi Krass asserts: “ All 
through the ages Jews have married outside of Judaism and were thus lost 
to Israel and the faith, and non-Jews married into Judaism and thus were 
added to and absorbed by Israel. All these historical facts prove conclu- 
sively that there was never among the Jews any objection to intermarriage 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 415 


Jews and Christians alike will try in love to show each to the 
other the truth which he believes has been given to him to hold 
and to share. 

5. Our relations to Latin America. It is just as well for us in 
the United States and Canada to realise that Latin America does 
not love us and is not occupied in gazing with longing upon our 
prosperity and with admiration upon our blameless political right- 
eousness. It distrusts and misbelieves our purposes. It derides 
our commercialism. It looks to France, not to us, for ideas and 
ideals. “It is evident,’ says Manuel Ugarte, “that nothing at- 
tracts us toward our neighbours of the North. By her origin, her 
education, and her spirit, South America is essentially European. 
We feel ourselves akin to Spain, to whom we owe our civilisation, 
and whose fire we carry in our blood; to France, source and 
origin of the thought that animates us; to England, who sends us 
her gold freely; to Germany, who supplies us with her manu- 
factures; and to Italy, who gives us the arms of her sons to wrest 
from the soil the wealth which is to distribute itself over the 
world. But to the United States we are united by no ties but 
those of distrust and fear.” Sr. Calderon calls us “the great 
_ plutocracy of the North,” ‘The Yankee peril”; our policy toward 
Chile he calls “ indecisive, turbid, Machiavelic.”” He monopolises 
“ America” as a term of speech applied to South America, as we 
have monopolised it for the United States. To be unified with 
the North American spirit would be racial suicide, he thinks. 
‘Where Yankees and Latin Americans intermingle, you may bet- 
ter observe the insoluble contradictions which divide them. The 


merely on racial grounds. The chief reason among the Jews, as among the 
Catholics, for example, used against intermarriage, was religious. The 
admixture of alien elements always tends to weaken the faith, 

“The attitude of the Jew today is still the same. We are opposed to 

intermarriage because we believe in our own religious mission and we feel 
that whatever tends to weaken that mission ought not to be encouraged. 
By intermarriage we understand the union of two persons of different 
faiths who after marriage still cling to their respective religions. 
The minority is always in danger of being absorbed through intermarriage 
by the majority, and if intermarriage increased, Jews as Jews would dimin- 
ish, and with the disappearance of the Jew Judaism would disappear, al- 
though many of its teachings have been incorporated in western civilisa- 
tion.”» (New York Times, March 3, 1924, “Dr. Krass Advises Jews to 
Wed Jews.’’) 


416 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


Anglo-Saxons are conquering America commercially and eco- 
nomically, but the traditions, the ideals, and the soul of these re- 
publics are hostile to them.” He declares, “ ‘To save themselves 
from Yankee imperialism the American democracies would almost 
accept a German alliance, or the aid of Japanese arms; everywhere 
the Americans of the North are feared.” He sees no real unity in 
the United States. He does see “the triumph of vulgarity,” the 
increase of divorce and criminality, “ plebeian brutality, excessive 
optimism, violent individualism, confusion, uproar, instability.” 
It is with Europe, and not with the United States and Canada, 
that Latin America would identify its commercial, political, and 
cultural interests. ‘‘ We find,” he says, “ practical mind, indus- 
trialism, political liberty in England; organisation and instruction 
in Germany; in France, inventive genius, culture, wealth, great 
universities, democracy. From these dominating people the New 
World should receive the legacy of western civilisation directly. 
Europe offers to the Latin-American democracies what they ask 
of Saxon America, which was itself formed in the schools of 
Burope?? 

Dr. Alfredo L. Palacios, a distinguished Argentine educational- 
ist, Dean of the Faculty of Juridicial and Social Sciences of the 
National University of La Plata, sets forth with a temperate 
pathos this deep feeling of distrust in Latin America: 


“My attitude is frankly one of opposition toward the Pan- 
American movement; because I know that in a union of that sort 
the weak and separated peoples of South America must become 
the satellites and servants, the unknowing docile instruments, not 
of North America but of the enslaving Yankee Plutocracy. 

“T believe, on the contrary, that the only salvation for these 
democracies of the South lies in the recognition by them of their 
mutual identity of race and their inevitable unity in destiny, thus 
bringing about a confederation of all of them to constitute a great 
power, like the Republic of the North, with which it might deal 
thus, in analogous conditions; and then a pan-Americanism would 
be possible and desirable which would place an incomparable 
barrier in the way of the irritating war-like and imperialistic pre- 


tensions of the Old World today. Unless this Confederation of: 


% Calderon, Latin America, Its Rise and Progress, passim. 


ee ey ee ee ee ee 


~~ eS a 


’ 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 417 


the South is formed, the present situation as well as Pan- 
Americanism are both extremely dangerous for the future of 
South America because they incorporate the idea of the absorp- 
tion, slowly but surely, of our nations, impotent and backward, 
by the Colossus of the North. . . . Of even more urgent inter- 
est than the important theme proposed by you, ‘the advantage 
there would be to all nations in substituting in their present bel- 
ligerent rivalries a policy of co-operation and concord,’ I believe 
is that of the necessity there exists for the peoples of South Amer- 
ica to unite in founding a vast Confederation which incorporates 
that ideal of solidarity and humane co-operation in opposition to 
that of rivalry and destructive struggle which Europe represents. 
Because I consider this as unchangeable, today, in such orienta- 
tion, undermined and honeycombed by interests and forces of the 
past which gravitate about her like fate itself; and in the same 
sense, more or less, North America is heading, pushed by her all- 
powerful plutocrats, towards the same fatal path. 

“Our Hispanic-American peoples alone are sustaining the ideal- 
ism of justice and international harmony, the defense and realisa- 
tion of which seems to constitute for them a mission placed upon 
them by destiny; for none other feels it so deeply nor finds itself 
free to promote it, since with us historic fatalities and interests 
opposed to this ideal are absent. That this splendid possibility 
may be realised depends upon our union, before all else; for if we 
continue to live apart, as we do today, we shall continue to be, suc- 
cessively, the irredeemable victims of North American power 
which perhaps may destroy forever this high aspiration.” 7 


And Dr. Zeballos, of Argentina, declared, in the summer of 
1923, that the United States was more unpopular than ever in 
South America as a result of the Pan American Conference held 
in Chile in the spring of 1923.78 : 


Letter Dr. Palacios, written to a friend in 1923. 

% New York Times, editorial “Through South American Eyes,” August 
23, 1923. See press dispatch in The New York Times, Jan. 13, 1923: 
“*Vankee imperialism’ and ‘North American bureaucracy’ are terms 
used by the newspapers today in unanimously approving Mexico’s refusal 
to participate in the Pan-American Congress at Santiago. The United 
States is variously described as ‘a crushing giant’ and ‘unscrupulous po- 
tentate,’ while Pan-Americanism,_as interpreted by the present union, is 
referred to as ‘a farce and comedy from which no good can come.’ 

“*nder the circumstances, Mexico could do nothing but decline the 
invitation,’ says the Excelsior. ‘Everybody knows Pan-Americanism 
merely signifies continental hegemony by the United States; that the 
famous conferences held from time to time, ostensibly to strengthen the 


418 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


The people of the United States think of themselves as so ani- 
mated with the spirit of justice and good will that they cannot 
conceive how other people should mistrust them. But we need to 
see ourselves as others see us. It will “ frae many a blunder free 
us, and foolish notion.”’ We have a real piece of work ahead of 
us in working out right race relationships with our Latin Ameri- 
can neighbours, but, once again, it can be done, and more easily 
than anywhere else in the world, by the old principle of justice 
and brotherhood. 

There are elements of union to bind us together across the 
chasm of race. There are many of these, and they are far 
stronger than such writers as Calderon and Ugarte, representative 
though they be of the thought of Latin America, are ready to 
admit. Latin America and Anglo-Saxon America do already have 
more in common than either has with Europe as a whole. What 
are some of these things? (1) The principle of democracy. It is 
true that Latin America thinks the United States to be a plutoc- 
racy and that we think the Latin-American nations to be oli- 
garchies, but as a matter of fact the democratic principle is 
inveterate in each. No Latin-American nation has ever been in 
danger of turning monarchy, however autocratic and prolonged 
its presidential dictatorship. Sr. Pezet says that without having 
inborn in them any of the principles of true democracy, the Latin- 
American nations became over night, as it were, democratic and 
representative republics. But there was more democracy there 
than Sr. Pezet allows, and the Latin-American spirit today is 
immovably democratic. ‘Titles and rank and dynastic interests 
are alien to it. It loves freedom. It is more akin to the spirit of 
the United States than to the spirit of France or any European 
race. (2) Latin America and Anglo-Saxon America have the 
common characteristics which came from the struggle to tame 
great areas. Japan is one-third the size of Venezuela, but its 
population is as great as that of all South America. South Amer- 
ica has a problem of nature subjugation more than forty-eight 


ties of friendship and fraternity among the American republics are worth 
only what the White House makes them worth because at all times Yankee 
diplomacy is imposed on all the other countries,’ the paper asserts.” 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 419 


times that of Japan. We have fought a good part of our battle 
and have the qualities resulting from it. Latin America is just 
entering a nature discipline. (3) Our political community of in- 
terest is real and fundamental. Drago and Calvo, of Argentina, 
and Rio Branco and Roy Barbosa, of Brazil, have striven as 
notably as our own statesmen “for the development and institu- 
tion of an American international law.” All the American nations 
deplore and must seek together to protect themselves against the 
system of state relationships and diplomacy which has plunged 
Europe into the ruin and carnage of its recent war. (4) The 
American nations have a common, traditional love of interna- 
tional peace. They have never built up great armaments or 
sought to preserve peace with one another by rivalry in arming 
each against the other. Before the European War it was said: 
“The twenty armies of Latin America aggregate on a war footing 
about 1,500,000 men. Taking the army of the United States, in- 
cluding the militia and volunteers, as 2,000,000, we get 3,500,000 
as the total of the American military coalition. This force, hardly 
capable of united action, is less than the war army of any one of 
the three former leading military powers of Europe—France, 
Germany, Russia.” ‘There have been wars in Latin America and 
periods of revolution and anarchy and bloody dictatorship, but the 
heart of all America is a heart of peace. It is a different heart 
from that of the militaristic nations. (5) America is less of a 
Babel than any other continent. Two languages practically cover 
all America. Portuguese is, of course, different from Spanish, 
but they are mutually intelligible. There are Indian dialects by 
the score, but these will die away with the popular education. 
English is taught throughout Latin America, and Spanish increas- 
ingly in the United States. And what is more significant, we have 
more common thought by far than binds any other two continents. 
(6) We are united by a common faith in and zeal for education. 
(7) We are also united by a common spirit of hope. We are all 


Americans. ‘‘ Seldom in Spanish America does one hear any one 
speak of the place his ancestors came from. . . . Seldom do 
South Americans or Mexicans seem to visit Spain. . . . For 


the Spanish Americans there seems to be no past at all earlier 


420 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


than their own war of independence.” It is true that France has 
supplanted Spain, and that France means Paris, but it is not the 
past of Paris that appeals. The Latin-American people are a 
people of the future. They and we are moving forward together 
into new things. And if we do our part the Christian ideals and 
principles will determine our movement. 

We have already seen how great is Latin America’s own prob- 
lem of race adjustment. It will help both her and us in our in- 
ternal problems if we can make our inter-continental relation- 
ships right. | 

6. The problems of this Western World seem bright compared 
with the race tangle of Europe. Those who glory in the suprem- 
acy of the white race must include in their boast its supremacy in 
fratricidal strife. They realise this with heavy hearts. With 
somewhat harsh language some of them describe the suicide of 
Europe and its consequences: “If this great race,” says Madison 
Grant, “with its capacity for leadership and fighting, should 
ultimately pass, with it would pass that which we call civilisation. 
It would be succeeded by an unstable and bastardised population, 
where worth and merit would have no inherent right to leadership 
and among which a new and darker age would blot out our racial 
inheritance.” “* The new population would perhaps have as clean 
a parentage as the old and it would have to be possessed of rare 
powers to be able to produce a darker age. But the present is 
doing its best to prepare the way. And the races are still un- 
awakened to their madness. 

7. The immigration problems are not ours alone. Canada and 
Australia share some of them with us and, so far as these prob- 
lems involve relations with the races of India, they come home to 
Canada as a member of the same Empire with India more even 
than to us. The population of Canada of British origin in 1921 
constituted 54 per cent. of the whole. Of the total population 
28.96% were of English origin, 27.91% were of French, 13.36% 
Scotch and 12.6% Irish. Asiatics were less than one per cent. of 
the whole. In the United States, Asiatics were less than one-sixth 


* Introduction to Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Colour, p. xxix f. 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 421 


of one per cent. Canada has a far vaster undeveloped territory, 
and a greater need of labour and a greater difficulty in assimilating 
the labour available, and a less homogeneous population, and a 
lighter Anglo-Saxon proportion, and a French Catholic element 
almost equal to its English stock and one-half as strong as the 
whole British stock combined. 

Australia’s problem is greater still. Five million people have a 
continent of 2,946,691 square miles. The Northern Territory of 
Australia has an area of 523,620 square miles, or four times the 
size of France, with a population of 3,734 people. Would the 
argument that justified the white race in taking over America 
from the Indian because it could do so and needed it, justify the 
yellow race in taking over Australia if it needed it and could take 
it? If not, what but a right view of racial relationships will 
prevent? “Australians,” says the Hon. Randolph Bedford, M.P. 
for Queensland, “ have made racial purity their political religion.” 
That is well. It will be well to add to the religion the element of 
racial justice and racial brotherhood. Australia is justified in a 
policy of restricted immigration if that will secure best the inter- 
ests of mankind. If not, she will be neither justified in forming 
the policy nor capable of enforcing it. 

South Africa also has the problem of Oriental race immigration, 
And the Allahabad Leader of March 11, 1923, reported an article 
in New India to the effect that the Supreme Court of the South 
African Union had by a vote of three judges to two confirmed the 
notice of the Minister of the Interior that all Asiatics were pro- 
hibited immigrants. New India added, “It is interesting to ob- 
serve that any drunken loafer, if he has a white skin can enter, 
but the entry of a Tagore, of a Sastri, of a Gokhale is probibited 
Even the Christ, when He comes, as He will be, in body) an 
Asiatic, will be a prohibited immigrant. An act prohibiting 
white South Africans from entering India should be passed by 
the Indian Legislature.” 

8. The Japanese have their race issues to deal with in Korea 
and in China. When they took over Korea it was with the policy 
of political incorporation and racial amalgamation. They under- 
estimated the spirit of the Korean people, their feeling of racial 


422 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


solidarity and their will for freedom. ‘There is an element in 
Japan which would crush all this with relentless military power. 
When the World War seemed to leave China at Japan’s mercy the 
Twenty One Demands were presented which would have subju- 
gated the Chinese to Japan, almost as completely as Korea. And 
the same element in Japan which would crush Korea would deal 
as ruthlessly with the Chinese. But a better mind as to race rights 
and relationships has come to Japan as it has come to us. It has 
found its way in part into power in new policies as to Korea and 
China, and it anticipates a fuller conquest. The Hon. D. Tagawa, 
ex Vice-Mayor of Tokyo and member of the Japanese Diet, who 
has gone to prison for his convictions and emerged as unfearing 
as before, sets forth this new progress of Japanese liberalism and 
the view as to its adequate sources and sanctions which underlies 
these studies: 


‘The Japanese liberals advocate home rule for Korea, complete 
restoration of Shantung to China (economic as well as political), 
absolute withdrawal from Siberia, unwavering maintenance of 
friendly relations with America, opening of all Cabinet posts to 
civilians, universal suffrage and other similar principles. 

“While, however, there are many evidences of a rising Liberal 
movement in Japan, it is hard to know just how real and strong 
it is. It is my own belief, true liberalism is a product of Chris- 
tianity and rests on Christian foundations. It depends on vital 
Christian faith for its own vitality. But the Christian movement 
in Japan is still very young, and very crude and very weak. We 
number scarcely more than 200,000 all told. Even so-called Chris- 
tians, multitudes of them, neither understand it nor really practice 
it. Not until millions of Japanese have been transformed by a 
vital Christianity shall we have, in my opinion, a really strong and 
a vital liberal movement. 

“This is, in my humble opinion, Japan’s most pressing problem. 
We have indeed the forms of constitutional government and of 
parliamentary institutions, but they do not as yet grow out of and 
depend on the inner life of our people; they are still largely exotic. 
Japan’s great need is that these institutions shall become indi- 
genous as well as effective, growing out of our own life. For 
this, however, our people must more generally come under the 
transforming influence of the teachings of Jesus as to God and 
man, giving respect for man as man, recognising his person and 


———- 


. ee ee ee 


eee ee ee ee 


SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 423 


his inalienable human rights. It is upon these foundations alone 
that a real liberal movement must build. 

“ But we are not without hope. We are learning many lessons. 
The Christian movement is making steady growth and we are 
coming into even closer touch with the liberal movement in the 
lands, especially in England and America. As a Christian speak- 
ing to Christians, let me ask your patience, your friendships, and 
your co-operation.” © 


9. No area of the world is free from these issues of race. 
They are the questions before men’s minds day and night in 
South Africa.‘® Before the Union the question of race relations 
was alive in the controversy over Chinese and Indian coolie la- 
bour and always in the problem of the native races. In Basutoland 
the population is almost wholly Bantu or native. In Natal it is 
nearly 80% with 12% more of Indians or half caste. In the 
Transvaal the native population is over 72%; in the Union of 
South Africa it is 67% ; in Orange Free State it is 61%; in the 
Cape it is 59%. The white population is highest in Orange Free 
State, with 33% and lowest in Natal with 8%. These were the 
census figures in 1911. In the whole of British South Africa in 
1904 the white population was less than one-fourth of the native 
or Bantu. The native is limited in his right to buy and own land. 
Contact with white civilisation has demoralised him, 


“The South African Native Affairs Commission of 1903-5 re- 
ports gloomily on this point: ‘It must apparently be accepted as 
an axiom that contact with what we are accustomed to regard as 
civilisation has a demoralising tendency as its first effect upon 
primitive races. It is clear that the Native year by year is becom- 
ing familiar with new forms of sexual immorality, intemperance, 
and dishonesty, and that his naturally imitative disposition, his 
virility, and escape from home and tribal influences provide a too 
congenial soil for the cultivation of acquired vices.’ So bad, in- 
deed, can the moral effect of a large mining centre be, that a 
prominent South African statesman, the Hon. John X. Merriman, 
in speaking of the responsibility of the white race for the Native, 


*® Goodwill, April, 1922, p. 191. 

*% International Review of Missions, April, 1922, art. “ Native Unrest in 
South Africa,” pp. 249, 259; The East and the West, Oct., 1922, art. “ Col- 
oured Races in South Africa,” pp. 327-337. 


424 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


referred to Johannesburg as a ‘Criminal University.’ 
Abundant evidence of the demoralising effect of life on the mines 
could be adduced; e. g.:-— 

“From Tohancsenucs on the other hand, they (the Natives) 
go back impoverished in wealth and health, and usually moral 
degenerates, and from their influence flow the physical degener- 
ation as well as the growing uneasiness among raw Natives who 
have not left their kraal. It is responsible for the growing crimi- 
nality, and the systematic undermining of the best traditions not 
only of the Native kraals, but also of respect for the white man’s 
authority and loss of faith in his good intentions.’ * 

“The Native’s mode of life has been largely affected by his 
contact with the European. Originally a pastoralist, he has been 
compelled by the enclosure of lands to occupy localities where 
pastoral farming is difficult. Economic pressure has forced him 
into the white man’s service, where his character and mode of life 
have been affected for the worse by an environment for which he 
was not ready.” 


There are also the fundamental problems of the right to own 
land and the right to work. Exclusion from land ownership and 
from higher occupations would be a deadly race discrimination. 
“For four hundred years,” says the London Times, “ white 
Europe traded in the black human beings of Africa and robbed 
her of one hundred million of her people, ‘transformed the face 
of her social life, overthrew organised government, distorted 
ancient industry, and snuffed out the lights of cultural develop- 
ment.’ ‘Today instead of removing labourers from Africa ‘to 
distant slavery, industry built on a new slavery approaches Africa 
to deprive the natives of their land, to force them to toil and to 
reap all the profit for the white world. 

“A recent law of the Union of South Africa assigns nearly two 
hundred and fifty million acres of the best of natives’ land to a 
million and a half of whites and leaves thirty-six million of acres 
of swamp and marsh for four and a half million blacks. In 


™ From an interview in the Cape Argus with Mr. C. J. Levey, I. S. O., 
senior member for Tembuland in the Old Cape Parliament, at one time 
C. C. and R. M. for Wodehouse and magistrate in Tembuland and the 
Transkei. Quoted by Loram, p. 10. 

*% Loram, The Education of the South African Native, pp. 9-11. 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 425 


Rhodesia over ninety million acres have been practically confis- 
cated. In the Belgian Congo all the land was declared the prop- 
erty of the state.” 

“ By the Land Act of 1913 passed by white men in the Orange 
Free State the black man is not allowed to hire land or even to 
contract with a white man to plough it on half shares. He is 
literally a serf, landless, unable to rent land, a hired servant of 
the Dutchman.” °° 

The Supreme Court of the Transvaal, however, recently de- 
clared invalid a legislative enactment limiting the employment of 
competent shiftsmen on work in mines and with machinery to 
white men.*! 

The reaction of such conditions on the white race is inevitable. 
Nature takes a sure revenge. The weaker group drags the 
stronger but smaller group down “ like a cancerous and suffocat- 
ing burden at the heart.” 8* The problem for South Africa, be- 
cause of numbers, is far harder than for us in America, and also 
because, with all its disadvantages, slavery was a school for the 
American Negro for which the Bantu people have had no equiva- 
lent. But, ultimately, though it be far off, the solution of South 
Africa’s race problem is not different from our own.*? 

And India has its grave struggle over these same questions 
both at home and abroad. In the Kenya Colony in East Central 
Africa,®* in Natal, in Guiana, the question of Indian race rights 
and relations is a living question. And race questions are the 
dominant questions in India itself. The three primary ethno- 


™ London Times, May 1 and April 24, 1923. Quoted in Race Relations 
and the Christian Ideal, p. 34; See Federal Council of the Churches, Re- 
search Department, Information Service, Jan. 12, 1924. Art. “Third Pan- 
African Congress.” 

° Jabavu, The Black Problem, p. 13. 

* New York Times, Feb. 21, 1924, Editorial. ““The Colour Line in South 
Africa.” 

ELAM AIC Py Cit. PD, Le, 

*8 One of the best discussions of the race problem in Africa is the chapter 
entitled “The Colour Bar” in Willoughby’s Race Problems in the New 
Africa, pp. 222-249, 

“London Spectator, May 5, 1923, art. “The Problem of Kenya,” p. 
744f.; Current History, Sept., 1923, art. by Llewelyn Powys, “ Britain’s 
Imperial Problem in Kenya Colony.” 


426 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


graphical divisions of mankind are all to be found within the area 
of the Indian Empire. Most of the Indian peoples are reckoned as 
belonging to the Caucasian type. The yellow race is found in the 
Lesser Himalayas and furnishes an important element in the eth- 
nology of Bengal. The Negroid type is clear in the Andaman 


Islands and, some would hold, elsewhere in India. Four of the 


great families of the human speech are found in India, the 
Austric, the ‘Tibeto-Chinese, the Dravidian and the Indo- 
European. The Moslem conquests also brought in the Semitic 
tongues, Persian and Arabic.®> To reconcile all these racial and 
linguistic strains which have ramified in the centuries, to open the 
gates of organised society to the low castes, and to bind together 
the Hindu and Mohammedan peoples, fictitiously united for a little 
while in the Nationalist Movement under Mr. Gandhi’s leadership 
but now wide apart and more hostile than before,®8* to unite 
Brahman and non-Brahman, and also to hold together Indian and 
European in good will and confidence—what other nation has 
more exacting racial problems than these? ®* 


® Griswold, Peoples and Languages of the Indian Empire. 

*® The Allahabad Leader, April 2, 1923, p. 3. 

8? The Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, March 23, 1923. Paper by the 
Earl of Ronaldshay, ex-Governor of Bengal, on “The Clash of Ideals as a 
Source of Indian Unrest”; Alfred Nundy, Indian Unrest, 1919-20, and 
Political Problems, Chs. III, IX, XV; Keir Hardie, India, pp. 97-107; 
Allahabad Leader, July 9, 1922, editorial, “ Untouchability and the Caste 
System”; The Missionary Review of the World, Jan., 1923. Art., “ India 
in the Melting Pot”; Allahabad Pioneer, Sept. 16, 1923. Editorial, “ Helots 
in Kenya and in India”; The Madras Mail, April 5, 1924. Art., “ De- 
pressed Fear the Caste Hindus.” For a careful study of one of the outcast 
groups, see Briggs, The Chamars. 

One of these editorials cites a ‘Note on the Depressed Classes in the 
Madras Presidency” prepared by the Commissioner of Labour and pub- 
lished by the Madras Government: 

“Tn six districts of the Madras Presidency, we are told, more than one 
person in every five is theoretically not allowed to come within a distance 
of 64 feet of the higher castes without pollution. The purification cere- 
monies, it appears, are now generally neglected except by the most ortho- 
dox, but in some areas the restrictions are still very pronounced. A case 
is described where a number of people who visited a British officer had to 
go many miles round to cross a river lest they should pollute a bridge by 
their presence. In 1919, an English gentleman, a pronounced Nationalist, 
while driving through a municipal town was surprised when his companion, 
an Indian student, asked that he might be allowed to leave the vehicle and 
join him at another point. He was still more surprised when his compan- 
ion explained to him that his reason for descending was that he was not 





SOME SPECIFIC RACE PROBLEMS OF TODAY 427 


10. The race problem is offered to the Christian Church as a 
test and as an opportunity. On the foreign mission fields the 
missionaries of the Western Churches have it in their power to 
demonstrate in their relations with the people and in the relation 
of the Missions with the Native Churches the right spirit and 
principle of race relationships. In the Eastern lands the new 
Christian Churches also are called upon to illustrate the true atti- 
tude of race to race, eschewing alike all servility and all arrogance, 
asking nothing as a favour, and demanding nothing as a right, but 
doing right and deserving right. In the West the Churches which 
have come down with rich, merged, racial inheritances should be 
the leaders in race service and sympathy. Least of all should any 
spirit of race antipathy or injustice appear in them. ‘They are 
called to lead men to pay whatever price must be paid in surrender 
of prejudice and of false and partial views and in the practice of 
brotherhood in order that they may know the truth and its 
freedom. 

The words of two Christian men, one of whom has lived 
through the race problem and the other of whom sought to think 
it through to its central truth may well bring these studies to 
a close: 

The first of these is one who came as an immigrant boy from 
Hungary, Dr. Steiner: 


“ T should like to point out in which direction the most valuable 
lessons of my experience lie. I believe they are: 

“First, that racial characteristics are largely determined by 
environment. 


permitted to pass through a certain street. Again, to quote the Labour 
Commissioner’s Note: ‘Theoretically all Government offices are open to 
persons of every class and creed, but a rich and respectable gentleman re- 
cently returned from abroad informed the writer of this Note that he was 
made to go outside a certain public office when it was discovered that he 
was of low caste. In the recent Ganjam famine it was found necessary to 
find work for the outcasts on a different part of the works from the other 
labourers. Even in the presence of actual famine, the rules of distance had 
to be obeyed.’ 

“Is it surprising when these facts are considered that Indians who are 
subjected to the treatment described should leave their native country in 
order to find careers in other lands where no implacable bar to their suc- 
cess in life exists?” 


428 RACE AND RACE RELATIONS 


“Second, that race prejudice is an artificial product of the - 


mind, induced by various influences. 
“Third, that in the highest and lowest spheres of thought and 
activity, all races are alike. 


“Fourth, that every human being, no matter what his colour, — 


race, faith or class, has a right to earn the respect of his neighbour 
and his community, by virtue of what he himself is. 

“ Fifth, that the brotherhood of man will become an established 
fact as soon as each man determines to live like a brother in his 
relation to his fellows. 

“ Sixth, that Christianity has in its spirit the solution of class 
and race problems; but that in its practice it is lamentably far 
from solving them. 

“ Seventh, that he who wishes to enter into fellowship with the 
nation or race with which he lives must free himself from all iso- 
lating practices and beliefs. 

“Fighth, that entrance into such a large human relationship 
has to be ‘ bought with a price’ and that it is a price worth paying; 
for there is no loftier human experience than that of becoming 
one with all mankind.” * 


The second of these two men is the late Viscount Bryce, who 
spent a long and honoured life defending races against wrong and 
promoting understanding and good will among men, and who 
wrote to America from the steamer on his return to England, in 
October, 1921: “ The most effective factor in getting rid of arma- 
ments would be to substitute for national hatred and rivalries a 
sense of the brotherhood of nations such as our Lord inculcated 
upon individual men. The idea that ‘we are all members one of 
another’ needs to be applied to peoples.” *° 

For this is the ultimate truth about the races. They are one 
body, of one blood. 


® Steiner, Against the Current, p. 288 f. 
® Goodwill, April, 1922, p. 191. 





. 
ee 


INDEX 


Abel, C. W., quoted, 173. 

Africa, Oriental immigration to 
South, 421, race problem in South, 
23 f 


Agassiz, Alexander, on influence of 
Christianity, 252. 

Alexander, Bertrand, quoted, 404 f. 

Allegret, 74. 

Amalgamation of races, 306-333. 

Ameer Ali, Syed, 241. 

American, The New York, hymn of 
hate against f oniee 163. 

Andrews, C. F., 160, 322. 

Armenian race igang 198 ff, 

Armstrong, Gen. S. C., quoted, 362 f. 

sancritiee immigration problems in, 

Awdry. Bishop of Japan, quoted, 
137 ff, 


Bagehot, quoted, 12, 314. 

Bahaism and race, 240. 

vr people, a racial mixture, 34, 
1 


Bashford, Bishop, quoted, 102. 

Beaulieu, Leroy, quoted, 90. 

Belloc, on the Jews, 72 f., 105 f. 

Bevan, Edward G., quoted, 45 f. 

Bhagavad Gita, 275 

Bhagavad Purana, 275. 

Bickett, Mrs. B. W., quoted, 353. 

Birmingham meeting of Interracial 
Conference, 375 f. 

Boas, Franz, quoted, 39, 62, 72, 76, 
98, 402. 

Bolivar, quoted, 325. 

Brailsford, John A., quoted, 298. 

Browne, E. G. on Mohammedan 
racial intolerance, 240. 

Browning, quoted, 132, 262. 

pie Lord, quoted, 62, 328 f., 364 f., 
427, 

Buckle, on climate, soil and race, 
Zee. 

Buddhism and race, 237 f. 


Burr’s America’s Race Heritage, 
cited, 42 

Burroughs, Nannie Helm, quoted, 

Burton, Sir Richard, 178, 321. 

Bury, quoted, 22. 


Cagots, 198. 

Cahn, Edgar M., quoted, 411. 

Calderon, on South American amal- 
Hee ies 326 ff., on the U. S., 
4] 


Canada, race problems in, 420 f. 
Capper Marriage- Divorce Bill, 317. 
Carroll, Charles, and the colour of 
God, 212. 
Carter, T. F., letter from, 87 f. 
Caste in India, 167 ff., 285 f. 
Chandavarkar, Sir Narayan, 241, 
paper on race, 259-286 
Charleston Cotton Growers’ 
ciation, statement of, 373. 
NECA e Se Lord, quoted, 
eg a 


Asso- 
110.f4 


Chicago Commission on Race Rela- 
tions, 378 ff. 

China, harsh industrial conditions in, 
174 £. 

Chinese attitude to West, 56 f. 

Chinese in America, 192-196. 

Chinese race characteristics, 141 ff. 

Chirol, Sir Valentine, quoted, 359. 

Christianity and race, 148-153, 276 ff., 
342-347 ;"427. 

Cicero, quoted, 47, 49, 53. 

Cleveland, Grover, 221. 

Climate and race, 222 ff. 

Cochran, J. B., quoted, 222. 

Colour and race, 212-222, 281. 

Communications and race, 228 ff. 

Confucius, Analects of, 102. 

Conklin, FE. G., quoted, 16, 19, 27, 29, 
40, 43, §2, 101; 304, 307 £., 315, 342. 

Constructive Immigration Legisla- 
tion, National Committee for, 393. 


429 


430 


Cotter, Joseph, quoted, 359. 

Country Editor, The, quoted, 173. 

Crile’s A Mechanistic View of War 
and Peace, quoted, 23 f. 

Croxton and Lauck, quoted, 383 ff. 

Curry, J. L. M., quoted, 189 f., 334. | 

7a Nis et 

Darwin, 28, 266, 268. 

Declaration of Independence, 114. 

De Groot, on Chinese animism, 237. 

Dewey, John, quoted, 97, 160 f., 208. 

Dicey, Edward, quoted, 290. 

Dickinson, G. Lowes, quoted, 145 f. 

Dixon, Roland B., quoted, 27, 28, 30, 
33, 41, 309, 404. 

Du Bois, W. E. B., quoted, 62, 76 ff., 
166, 170, 184 f., 189, 331, 374. 

Dufferin, Lord, on racial diversity 
in India, 38. 

Dunlap, on inadequate explanation 
of human nature, 24. 


East India Company, 320. 

ee E. M., quoted, 18, 39, 70, 104, 
159. 

Eastman, C. A., quoted, 400. 

Eastman’s Harlem Shadows, quoted, 


Economic interdependence of races, 
127 1.0534: 

Education in Africa, Report on, 
176 ff. 

Education, environment and inheri- 
tance, 15-25. 

Eliot, Sir Charles, quoted, 80. 

Emory Wheel, The, quoted, 352. 

Encyclopedia Britannica, 43, 52, 227. 

Eshuf Edih Bey, 241. 

Eugenics and race, 303 ff. 

Eurasians, 322 f, 

Evans, Maurice, quoted, 221. 

Exline, quoted, 18. 


Faber, Ernst, on Confucian con- 
tacts with Christianity, 142. 

Family conception of race, 11-14. 

Farquhar, J. N., quoted, 152 f., 167. 

Fenollosa’s Epochs of Chinese and 
Japanese Art, quoted, 85. 

Ferguson’s Outline of Chinese Art, 
quoted, 84. 

Field’s review of McDougall’s The 
Group Mind, 19. 

Fielding’s The Soul of a People, 266. 


INDEX 


Finch, Earl, quoted, 313. 
Finot, quoted, 25, 28, 31, 70, 78, 216, 
224 


Fisher, Isaac, 352. 

Fisk University, 63. 

Fleming, D. J., quoted, 99 f. 

Follett’s The New State, 108. 

Foster’s American Diplomacy in the 
Orient, quoted, 172. 

Fouillée, Alfred, quoted, 233 f. 

Frank’s History of Rome, 306 f. 


Gairdner, Canon, quoted, 151 f. 

Galton, Francis, quoted, 40, 303. 

Gandhi, 61, 126 f., 157. 

Garvey, Marcus, quoted, 293, 319 f. 

George, Lloyd, quoted, 171, 263. 

Gerald, Rene, quoted, 242. 

Gibson, J. C., quoted, 151 f. 

Gil, Jaime C., quoted, 165. 

Gladstone, cited, 111, 263. 

Goldenweiser, quoted, 20f., 230 f. 

Gordon, General C. G., 267. 

Grant, ‘Madison, 41, 68, 106, 291, 420. 

Greeks, race consciousness among 
the, 45 ff. 

Green, J. R., quoted, 335. 

Guggisberg, Sir F. G., quoted, 74. 

Gulick, S. L., on a sound immigra- 
tion policy, 386 ff. 

Gupta, Sir K. G., quoted, 168. 


Hadji Mirza Yahya, quoted, 238 f. 
Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, 313. 

Hammond, Mrs., quoted, 102, 108. 
Harding, President, 56, 126, 377. 


- Harnack on the unifying influence 


of Rome, 243 f. 
Harvard Alumni Bulletin, quoted, 
22l. 
Harvard Lampoon, quoted, 100. 
Havard, race problem at, 100 f., 221. 
Hartshorne, Professor. quoted, 24. 
Haynes, George E., 356, 358. 
Hays, Daniel P., quoted, 410. 
Hawaii, Japanese in, 397 f. 
Hearn, Lafcadio, 323 f. 
orth idea of race as “ mother,” 
105. 
Hebrews, the, and race conscious- 
ness, 50 ff., 105 ff. 
Heckewelder, John, quoted, 399. 
Henderson, James, quoted, 362. 
Heredity and race, 15-25. 





INDEX 


Hinduism and race, 237, 273 ff. 

Hoare, Bishop of China, quoted, 141. 

Hobson, J. A., quoted, 172. 

Holmes, Justice, quoted, 121. 

Hubner, Baron, on Japanese love of 
nature, 140. 

Hueffer, O. M., quoted, 42. 

Huntington’s Civilization and Cli- 
mate, 224. 

Husband, W. H., Commissioner of 
Immigration, quoted, 388. 


Immigration, 380, 391. 

India Census Report on race and 
colour, 214 ff., on effects of Chris- 
tian missions, 254. 

India, characteristics of its people, 
146 ff., race prejudice in, 283 f. 

India, race problems in, 425 f. 

Indian prisoner’s fidelity, 56. 

Indians, our treatment of the Ameri- 
can, 191 f., 399-402, 

Indian Social Reformer, 168. 

Intermarriage, 306-333. 

International Journal of Ethics, 265. 

Interracial. Codperation, Commis- 
sions on, 349 ff., 375 f. 

Italians in the U. S., 196. 


Jackson, Helen Hunt, A Century of 
Dishonour, 191. 

Jackson, Miss., statement of Ne- 
groes in, 371 f. 

Jain, C. R., quoted, 208. 

James, William, 302. 

Japanese Exclusion League, 395 f. 

Japanese problem in the U. S., 392- 
399, in the Far East, 421 f. 

Japanese race feelings, 58f., race 
characteristics, 137 ff. 

Jesus Christ and race problems, 
246 ff. 

Jews and the race problem, 72f., 
105 f., 402-415. 

Johnston, Sir H. H., quoted, 134. 

Jones, Stuart, on cause of Rome’s 
failure, 49. 

Jones, Thomas Jesse, quoted, 176 f. 

Jordan, David Starr, quoted, 20, 315. 

Josey’s Race and National Solidar- 
ity, quoted, 65, 299. 


Kakehi, quoted, 58. 
Kallen, Horace M., quoted, 414. 
Kammerer, 28. 


431 


Kant, 271. 

Kato, quoted, 58. 

Keith, Sir Arthur, quoted, 29. 

Kelsey, quoted, 72. 

Kenya Colony, 425. 

Khama, 91 f. 

Kidd, Benjamin, quoted, 24, 53, 70, 
74, 128, 256, 300. 

Kipling, 129, 163. 

Kirk, Sir John, quoted, 178. 

Kirth, Dr.. Arthur, 406. 

Kok An Wee, on The Status of the 
Chinese in the United States, 195. 

Krass, Nathan, quoted, 405 f., 414. 

Ku Klux Klan, 203 f., 353 f. 


Lala Lajpat |Rai, quoted, 168. 

Lambeth Conference of 1920, 279. 

Landman, Isaac, quoted, 413 f. 

Landorwey on Roland Hayes, 63. 

Language and race, 102, 226 f. 

Lasker, Bruno, quoted, 14, 96. 

Latin American opinion of the 
United States, 64, 415-420. 

Laws, Robert, quoted, 254. 

League of Nations Mandates, 337 f. 

Lechler, Gotthard, on Paul’s unify- 
ing racial influence, 251 f. 

Lecky’s, The Political Value of His- 
tory, quoted, 256. 

Lefroy, Bishop of Lahore, quoted, 
143 f£., 238. 

Liberia, 232. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 209, 

Liquor traffic in Africa, 178 f. 

Living Age, The, quoted, 404. 

Livingstone, David, 266. 

London Times, The, quoted, 291, 
424. 

Loram, C. T., cited, 255. 

Louisville Times, The, quoted, 206. 

L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 219. 

Lowe Chuan-hwa, quoted, 57. 

Lowell, J. R., quoted, 334. 

Lucas, Bernard, quoted, 147. 

Luschan, von, quoted, 43, 79, 213, 
288 f. 

Lyall, Sir Alfred, quoted, 120, 125, 
236, 301. 

Lyde, Lionel W., quoted, 214. 

Lynching, 205 ff. 


Malietoa Tanu, 65. 
Mandates Commission of League of 
Nations, 339 f. 


432 


Mangin, General, quoted, 74 f., 90. 

Mankind and the Church, 133-145, 

Mann, Congressman, quoted, 289. 

Marshall, Louis, quoted, 411. 

Martin, Luthur, 187. 

Marvin, Biss quoted, 26, 45, 103 f. 

Mason, James, quoted, 269, 

Matheson, George, quoted, 265. 

McClatchy, on the Japanese, 59, 392. 

McDougall, cited, 16. 

Melville, Herman, quoted, 171. 

Meston, Lord, quoted, 336. 

Mexican immigration, 391. 

Mill, John Stuart, quoted, 17, 302. 

Miller, Ve Baik We quoted, 78, 91. 

Miller, Kelly, quoted, 190 f. 

Milner, Lord, quoted, 300. 

Mirza Saeed Khan, quoted, 66, 155, 
238, 240. 

mere a Gabriella, quoted, 64, 117, 


Mohammedanism and race, 37, 
238 ff., 276 £., and race character- 
istics, 143 ff. 

eae Se Sourour Bey, quoted, 


Moir’s description of a slave cara- 
van, 182 f. 

Montague and Chelmsford, quoted, 

Montgomery The, 
quoted, 360. 

Morgenstern, Julian, 411. 

Morse’s American Universal Geog- 
raphy, quoted, 55. 

Morse, Josiah, quoted, 93 f. 

Moton, Major, on Negroes and the 
Army tests, 99, on Negroe prog- 
ress, 361. 

Mulattoes in U. S., 310 ff, 

Miller, Max, quoted, 170. 

Murphy, E. @ quoted, 190, 295f., 
330 FS 363: 

Myers, Ke S., quoted, 15. 


Advertiser, 


Natal, influence of Christian educa- 
tional missions, 255. 

Nation, The, 406, 414. 

Nationality and race, 224 f., 229, 281. 

Negro problem in the U. S., 293-296, 
348-380. 

Negro race characteristics, 134 ff. 

Negro racial capacity, 62 f., 74 ff. 

Newmark, Leo, quoted, 406 

New Republic, The, 28. 


INDEX 


New York Times, The, editorial on 
Negro migration, 372, on immi- 
gration policy, 390. 

Nuttall, Archbishop of the West — 
Indies, quoted, 134 f, 


Opium traffic, 180 f. 

Ortolan, quoted, 12. 

Osborn, Henry Fairfield, quoted, 16. 

eae Half a Man, quoted, 
bh Ue 


Page, Walter H., Life and Letters — 
of, quoted, 122 f., 220. . 
Palacios, Alfredo L., quoted, 416. 
Papuan race characteristics, 133 f. 
Park and Burgess, quoted, 21, 98, — 
Ete fo gaia wg 
Pasteur, 284. ; 
Patton’s World Facts and America’s — 
Responsibility, quoted, 36. | 
Paul and the race problem, 107 f., 
249, 252. 
Pearson, C. H., quoted, 290, 333. 
Pension to slaves, 355 
Pepper on defects of Western edu- — 
cation, 336 , 
Persian poets and race, 239, 
Pethick, W. N., quoted, 180. 
Petrie, Flinders, quoted, 143. 
Pezet, F. A., cited, 418. 
Pinckney, William, 187. 
Porter, Professor, of Beirut, quoted, © 
200. 
Post, The 
quoted, 124. ; 
Prayer for right race feelings, 210 f. 
Priestley’s The Mexican Nation, a 
History, quoted, 128. 
Pringle Pattison, 271. 
Protestant Episcopal General Con- — 
vention and race dioceses, 113 f. 


New York Evening, — 


Quatrefages, quoted, 314. 
Racial antipathy, sources of, 154 ff., 
2 a 


Ramsay, Sir William, on Paul’s uni- © 
fying influence, 250 f 4 

Ranade, quoted, 109. 

Ransom, Marius, 408 f. 

Ratzel, quoted, 13, 34, 81, 89, 308. q 

Reinsch, Paul S., quoted, 157, 229 £5) 
309, 345, 

Religion and race, 233-258. 





INDEX 


Rhys Davids, quoted, 238, 

Richardson, quoted, 24. 

Robertson, J. M., on discontent of 
subject races, 114 ff. 

Rodebach, Georges, quoted, 226. 

Rodo, Jose Enrique, quoted, 65. 

Roemer’s Origin of the English Peo- 
ble and of the English Language, 
quoted, 226. 

Roman view of family, 12, 

Rome and its race policy, 48 ff. 

Ronaldshay, Earl of, quoted, 157. 

Beh E. A., quoted, 19, 31, 123, 154, 

Rossiter on race composition of 
America, 42. 

Rowell, Chester H., quoted, 291. 

Rowell, N. W., quoted, 66 

Royce, Josiah, quoted, 45, 80. 

Russell, Bertrand, 148, 336 

ort decay of economic trust in, 


Sarojini, Naidu, quoted, 36. 
Scherer, S. A., quoted, 140. 
Schreiner, Olive, quoted, 316 f. 
Schulman, Samuel, quoted, 412. 
Scotch-Irish animosity to English, 
- 35, 196, 
Seeley, J. R., quoted, 81. 
Selborne, Lord, quoted, 255. 
Semitic view of racial kinship, 11 f. 
Sergi, Giuseppe, quoted, 235 
Seward, W. H., on the Chinese 
Coolie trade, 193. 
Sex and race problems analogous, 
230 ff. 
Shaler, N. S., cited, 188. 
Shibusawa, Baron, quoted, 398 f. 
Shih, Peter, 352. 
Shohl, Charles, quoted, 409 f. 
Shridkar Ketkar, 168 
Singer, Isidore, quoted, 414. 
Slater, T. E.., quoted, 150. 
Slave raid caravan, picture of, 182 f. 
Slavery, 181-191, 360 f. 
in ancient times, 181. 
in Scotland, 181. 
white slavery in America, 181 f. 
in Portuguese East Africa, 185 ff. 
Slessor, Mary, of Calabar, 179. 
Sloane, W. M., quoted, 226. 
Smith on “Language as a Link,” 
102,227 £: 
Smith, W. Robertson, quoted, 12. 


433 


South African Native Races Com- 
mittees Report, 82, 334 f. 

Southern University Commission on 
the Negro, 349 f. 

Spaulding, C. C., quoted, 374. 

Spengler, Oswald, quoted, 220. 

Spielmann, Isidore, quoted, 414. 

Spiller, quoted, 79, 83, 88, 304. 

Stanmore, Lord, quoted, 269. 

Steiner, E. A., quoted, 44, 257 f., 
305 £.,427. 

Stephenson, G. T., quoted, 160. 

Stern, Horace, quoted, 410. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, buried with Ne- 
groes, 357. 

Stevenson, R. L,, 

Stewart, James, rear 75 £., 
197, 252 f. 

Stoddard, Lothron, quoted, 17, 68 f., 
130 f., 159, 164 f., 225, 242, 288. 
Stone’s The American Race Prob- 
lem, and other writings, quoted, 


54, a, 95, 117, 124, 154, 158, 188, 
374 


Sian R. S., quoted, 67. 

Student Fellowship for Life Ser- 
vice, Southern Conference of, 352. 

Student Volunteer Convention at 
Indianapolis, 344 f. 

Sulzberger, Mayer, 73. 

Sutherland, Justice, decision on nat- 
uralization of Japanese, 394 f. 

Swadeshi, 109. 

Sze, Chinese Minister to the U. S., 
quoted, 192. 


176, 


Tagore, Rabindranath, quoted, 60, 
168 f., 299. 

Temple, Lt. Gov. of Northern Ni- 
geria, quoted, 302. 

Temple, Sir Richard, quoted, 147. 

Temps, Le, quoted, ch 219. 

Thomas, W. he ah quoted, 218. 

Thompson, Prof. Wm. H., Brain 
and Personality, 24. 

Thomson, Joseph, quoted, 178. 

Thomson, Sir Basil, on criminals, 24. 


Thomson’s Outline of Service, 
quoted, 32 f. 

Thorndike, quoted, 21, 343, 366. 

Tolstoy, 44. 


Townsend, Meredith, 157. 

Trotsky’s Terrorism and Commun- 
ism, 16. 

Trowbridge, Stephen G., cited, 241. 


4:3 4s 


Tukaram, 275. 
Tuskegee Government Hospital, 220. 


Uesugi Shinkichi, quoted, 59. 
Uhlhorn, quoted, 244 ff. 
Ugarte, Manuel, quoted, 415. 


Vambery, Arminius, quoted, 297 f. 
Vardaman, Senator, quoted, 332. 
Venezuela difficulty, in 1895, 300. 
Villa expedition, 340 f. 


War, economic and racial burden of, 


Ward, Harry F., 263. 

Warne, Bishop, quoted, 37. 

Washington, Booker, quoted, 93, 118, 
221530. 

Waterhouse, on assimilability of the 
Japanese, 392 f. 

Weale, Putnam, quoted, 125, 164, 
OI 21222 Fh 232) 1242 £302. 

Weatherford, W. D., quoted, 121, 


366. 

Webb, Attorney Gen. of California, 
on Japanese in U. S., 392. 

Wee Macgregor, 287. 

Wells, H. G., quoted, 31, 98, 154. 


INDEX 


West Africa, quoted, 180. 

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, quoted, 59. 

Whipple, Bishop, on our treatment 
of the Indians, 191 f. 

Wichita Beacon, The, quoted, 40. 

Wilcox, E. V., quoted, 385 f. 

Wiley, Dr. Harvey, 24. 

Williams, F. W., letter from, 86 f. 

beg rint Mornay, quoted, 210f,, 
34 


Winsborough, Mrs. W. C., quoted, 
353 


Winston, Judge R. W., quoted, 294. 

Woods, Ambassador to Japan, 
quoted, 129 f. 

Woods, as to domination of inheri- 
tance, 17 f. 

Woodward, Archdeacon H.. W., 
quoted, 268. | 

Wordsworth, quoted, 262, 283. 

Work, Indian Commissioner, quoted, 
402. 

Wu Ting Fang, quoted, 292, 313. 


York, Archbishop of, quoted, 278 f. 
Zeballos, quoted, 417. 


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